Fighting With One's Self
by MaliciousMoanna
Summary: My friend Yume and I decide to become ninjas. We stumble upon an organization called Akatsuki, who agrees to train us but only if we agree to join them, but could there be a reason for that? Rated M for Hidan's language
1. Chapter 1

**Fighting With One's Self**

**Author's Note:** This is my first fic in—literally—years. The story is strictly fluff (which actually only comes in later), only rated M for cussing ^ ^

**Description:** My friend and I have been Naruto fanatics from the moment we knew how to watch anime. What happens when our deepest desire gets fulfilled and we enter the Naruto realm?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of the characters except Yoku and Yume.

**Chapter 1: To the Base**

It was Friday afternoon, minutes after school had ended, and I was walking home with my best friend, Naresome Yume-chan. We were, as always, talking about our favourite anime, Naruto, and what our reactions would be if we ever got there. We gave each other different scenarios with our OC's and laughed at the other's reactions, much like any other day.

The two of us have been outsiders ever since kindergarten, but have somehow found each other late in middle school along with the rest of our weird little group. None of us fit into a 'clique' and, as one of our friends once said, we were the ones that remained after the rest had been sorted into the cliques. We understood each other and were able to laugh with each other about the littlest things.

When we got to Yume-chan's house, we fell down lazily on the couch, still laughing with each other. As the day passed slowly, we went over to her computer and downloaded the few remaining pictures we still needed of our favourite anime characters: Deidara-kun and Itachi.

Yume-chan was absolutely nuts about Itachi, but I could never find the reason. All I liked about him were his jutsus. Deidara-kun, on the other hand, was beautiful in any way imaginable, and while I slept at night I pretended that he really did exist and that we were together and I pretended the dreams I had were really memories.

That night, we went to bed late, as we had been watching a horror movie, Insidious. That was another thing that separated us from the rest of the girls at school: we were obsessed with horror and action movies, and rarely ever got nightmares, but it didn't really help the paranoia if we heard unexpected noises or saw quick, sharp movements.

I dreamed about Deidara-kun and me throughout the whole night, and hugged myself in an attempt to imitate his hold, placing a pillow behind me that might even be him if my imagination was strong enough.

The dreams became more vivid. I dreamt he and I were lying in the shade of a willow tree, looking out over a lake, while he fed me bits of cookies while stroking my hair.

I could practically feel the soft breeze on my face after a while, and the grass underneath me. I could vividly hear the sound of the running water, and the chirping of the birds in the trees, yet his touch seemed just as distant as before.

I woke up with a gasp, not knowing why, and opened my eyes, squinting against bright sunlight. Had that idiot Yume-chan left her curtains open again? I rubbed my eyes in confusion. I had seen her close the curtains before we went to bed.

As my eyes adjusted to the sudden light, I let out a ragged breath. I looked around me at the bright sunlight shining through the leaves of willow trees and shimmering over the surface of a lake visible a few yards away, the black and purple dual-bladed sword I had designed for my OC lay beside me, and I looked down to see that I wore the same black and purple outfit I had drawn my OC in, as well. I grabbed a strand of my hair and smiled gleefully as my OC's dark brown hair, highlighted with black, reflected some of the sun's light. I ran my fingers along my ears and grinned even more broadly at all the piercings, and the two at the edges of my bottom lip.

I heard a groan from behind me and shrieked gleefully as I saw Yume-chan, her scythe lying beside her, her OC's long dark hair tied into a plait lying around her head, and she was frowning against the sunlight. I crawled up to her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her.

"Wake up, idiot! Look where we are!" I yelled, and she whined in protest.

"We're at my home, now shut the curtains!" she said, "I told you not to open them so early in the morning."

"You really can be such an idiot sometimes," I sighed, "OPEN YOUR BLOODY EYES!"

Her eyes flew open at the sudden rise of my voice, and she looked around in confusion.

"What the hell? What did you do? Did you freaking drag me out here while I was sleeping?"

"Are you stupid? No, I woke up, like, two minutes ago," I said.

"Where are we?" she asked, "Have we been kidnapped or something?"

"You might be a lot smarter than me in general, but you're really are dumb when you just wake up," I said, shaking my head, "Did you forget your house as an alarm?"

"How do you explain this, then?" she snapped.

"Look at what you're wearing, idiot," I said, "Where do you think we are?"

Before she could answer, we heard a rustle in the trees not too far away. I was sure we wouldn't have been able to hear it normally. It was followed by a whining cry.

"Senpai, we've been walking for hours! I'm totally beat! What are we doing here anyway?"

"Tobi, shut up for once. I feel someone's chakra, un," came the reply, and I froze in shock. I knew that voice all too well.

Sure enough, seconds later, two figures appeared from the trees. Both were wearing the black Akatsuki cloaks decorated with red clouds. The one on the right was wearing a bright orange mask and was dragging himself behind a blonde-haired man I knew to be a bomb specialist.

"HOLY FRICK, YOKU! IT'S DEIDARA! ALL YOUR FANTASIES HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!" Yume-chan yelled, making me gasp and grab the cloth covering my heart in fright.

"Shut up, dammit," I hissed.

"You look even more like a woman in real life, Deidara!" Yume-chan said, starting to laugh loudly.

"Cut it out," I hissed angrily. I felt my scalp and tailbone twitch and Yume-chan stared at me with wide eyes. When I touched my fingers to my head I felt a pair of ears I knew to look like that of a wolf, "Damn it, I meant to remove these," I said. I had designed the ears and tail of a wolf to appear whenever I was really angry or embarassed.

"All right, all right, I'll keep my cool," Yume-chan said, regaining herself.

"Senpai, Senpai, they know your name," Tobi said, tugging at Deidara-kun's sleeve.

"We know yours, too, Tobi," Yume-chan said carelessly, picking up her scythe.

I grabbed the hilt of my dual-bladed sword and stood behind her, pretending to be her shadow and felt the ears and tail disappear. Everyone who was anyone knew that I struggled to speak with people I don't actually know, even if those people are someone I've been stalking on the internet for months.

"Senpai, Senpai, they know our names!" Tobi said, panicked, tugging harder at Deidara's sleeve.

"Who are you, un?" Deidara-kun asked us, ignoring Tobi.

"I'm Naresome Yume," Yume-chan said coolly while I still pretended to be her shadow, "This is my friend Amahiro Yoku."

I glared at her for drawing attention on me, but the two Akatsuki members paid me little heed.

"What do you know about us, un?" Deidara-kun asked.

"Just about everything," Yume-chan said coolly, "And your organization."

"Are you out of your mind?" I hissed in her ear, so that only she could hear me, "Do you want them to kill us?"

"Is Itachi still partners with Kisame?" Yume-chan asked, as if to prove her point about 'knowing all about their organization'.

"Why wouldn't he be, un?"

"Just asking …"

Before we could even finish blinking, clay gripped at our hands and tied them behind our backs, causing our weapons to fall to the ground.

"Senpai, they might be with one of the Hidden Villages!" Tobi exclaimed, flailing his hands in panic.

"I don't see any forehead protectors. We'll take them to the base and the Leader can decide what to do with them from then on, un," Deidara-kun replied to Tobi, then he glared at each of us, and I felt myself cringe under his stare, "Try and escape and you lose your hands and half your backs."

"Oh, we won't try to escape," Yume-chan said with a grin. Tobi picked up our weapons and the two Akatsuki members led us away.

Suddenly I wasn't so glad to be here anymore …

Great 'thank you' to Yume-chii, who helped me with the plot and description. Arigato gozaimasu ^ ^

The following bunch of chapters are going to be considerably longer, as the story will only actually start from Chapter 2 onwards: this was more just an introduction that anything else.

I know the title is really, really sucky, but I couldn't think of anything else. I suck ass when it comes to titles, so my deepest apologies.

I wouldn't turn your head into a blood pudding if you gave me some advice, so long as it's valid.

Until the next Chapter of Fighting With One's Self … I feel so corky now -_-ll


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**There's going to be a little OOC'ness in this chapter, so brace yourself. Otherwise, enjoy ^ ^

**Chapter 2 – The Leader's Choice**

Everyone was silent. We had been walking for at least an hour, and my arms were aching terribly. Yume-chan had tried insulting, negotiating, lying by promising treasures, and even begging the S-rank missing nins to let us go, but Deidara-kun ignored her completely while Tobi just ignored her pleas. They had not even asked us why we didn't just run on the trees like they usually did, so they must have known we didn't know how to use our chakra.

"Ahh, your hair is so pretty, Yume-chan!" Tobi would coo, walking beside her excitedly while playing with her hair, "Deidara-senpai, can I keep her?"

"She's not an animal, un."

"Maybe she's a puppy in disguise, Senpai!" Tobi said, mocking a whining tone.

"I'm not a freaking puppy, you idiot!" Yume-chan yelled angrily, "Just let us go! Please!"

"Don't talk so loudly, Yume-chan," Tobi whispered loudly, "People might hear us."

"WE'RE IN A FOREST!" Yume-chan yelled at the top of her voice, and Tobi ran away to stand behind a tree, peeking out from behind it this way and that.

When he was certain no one would attack us, and he had fallen a considerable length behind, he caught up and started walking beside me instead, causing me to cringe a little in discomfort.

"You won't be able to get a word out of her," Yume-chan said carelessly, and I glared at her. She knew it wasn't my fault.

"Are you mute, Yoku-chan?" Tobi asked in wonder, and I looked pleadingly at Yume-chan, begging her with my eyes to save me.

"She's not mute," she said, "She doesn't talk to strangers."

"Why not, Yoku-chan?" Tobi asked, as though I had been the one speaking. I walked a little faster so that I was walking inches from Yume-chan, begging her with my eyes again, but Tobi just moved with me, "We're nice strangers. We won't hurt you, Yoku-chan. Isn't that right, Senpai?"

Deidara-kun just grunted a grumpy 'un' as the forest became denser, and suddenly he stopped walking, causing me to blush as I nearly walked into him.

"What now?" Yume-chan asked grumpily.

"Do they have to be blindfolded, too, Senpai?" Tobi asked cheerfully, and my eyes widened with shock. Say what?

"Blindfolded?" Yume-chan asked softly, then raised her voice angrily, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, BLINDFOLDED? YOU WON'T HAVE ME BLINDFOLDED! LIKE HELL! THERE'S NO WAY—"

Her sentence was cut off when Deidara-kun released a handfull of clay and directed it to each of our faces. I felt my vision darken instantly as the clay wrapped itself around our eyes, and Yume started throwing a fresh wave of curses.

"I WILL KILL YOU, YOU PSYCOPATHIC DICK!" she yelled, "GET THIS FREAKING THING OFF ME!"

A gasp and a small shriek escaped my mouth as my legs were swept from under me and I was held bridal style. Yume-chan's shouts and swearing became even more heated.

"I will kill you if you say another word, un," Deidara-kun said, and my breath caught when I felt the vibrating against my chest and his voice from directly above me. _He _was the one carrying me? I felt my muscles numb instantly and Yume started muttering curses under her breath instead of yelling them.

Another small shriek—and a terrified yell from Yume-chan—escaped my mouth when I felt myself rise rapidly as Deidara-kun started running on the branches of the trees.

"Yume-chan, it would help if you relaxed a little!" Tobi called in a panicked voice from my left.

"DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE TELL ME TO CALM THE HELL DOWN! WHY DON'T YOU TRY BLINDFOLDING YOURSELF AND BINDING YOUR ARMS BEHIND YOUR BACK WHILE DOING THIS? THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Yume-chan, you don't have to worry, I won't let you fall!" Tobi cried desperately.

"ARE YOU HITTING ON ME? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING-"

"Shut up, un!" Deidara-kun said irritably, and I felt myself cringe while my heart pounded away furiously. I felt as though it had gone and gotten stuck in my ass.

Yume's yells became panicked mutters again, and my discomfort increased by the second. My panic levels rose tenfold when Deidara-kun started sometimes jumping horizontally—I guessed to avoid running into a branch.

"Will you at least prove that you have a heart and let our arms go, at least?" Yume-chan called, "I really don't feel safe here, and it's not like we have any idea where we are."

"Deidara-senpai, she's right," Tobi called, "My hand is slipping."

"You wear gloves, un," Deidara-kun said simply.

"For goodness' sake, man, have a heart!" Yume-chan yelled.

"Don't go 'Katsu'," Tobi pleaded.

A low and angry growl escaped Deidara-kun's throat, and his chest vibrated, setting my mind spinning. After a few seconds I felt the clay binding my hands shatter and fall off, and brought my hands over my sides to rest on my stomach as Yume-chan's gleeful cries filled the air.

Deidara-kun took an especially dangerous leap and I automatically clutched onto his cloak, unsure whether I had only grabbed cloth.

"You're hurting me, un."

I let go immediately and felt my ears and tail appear, an embarassed blush creeping onto my face. Oddly enough, he didn't say anything about them, and neither did Tobi. I was so glad I was blindfolded. I didn't want to see the look on Deidara-kun's face. I wanted to apologize for pinching his skin along with the cloth of the cloak but, as always when trying to talk with people I didn't know, my voice was stuck somewhere in my throat.

"I didn't say you have to let go altogether. Just don't cling on so tightly, un," Deidara-kun said, and my blush deepened.

"Ooohh, I bet Yoku's blush is redder than Itachi's eyes!" Yume-chan called gleefully.

I wanted to tell her to shut the hell up, but my voice was still stuck in my throat. Deidara-kun took another dangerous leap and I clutched on tightly, sure that I only grabbed cloth this time. I clutched even tighter when we descended rapidly and, with a soft bump, we landed on the ground, and Deidara put me down.

Struggling to keep myself upright, I let go of Deidara-kun's cloak just as the clay over my eyes shattered.

We were standing in a massive clearing surrounded by trees that stood several yards high. Right in front of us was the Akatsuki hideout. I was surprised when I saw that the sun had already set and the last few rays of light were just disappearing.

Yume-chan was still cussing and swearing when Deidara-kun led us to the large front doors of the building. Tobi handed us our weapons before trailing behind him excitedly while the two of us lagged behind.

"That was so awesome!" I whispered.

"Yeah, because you were held by your stalkee bridal style," she replied grumpily.

"I'm NOT a stalker," I said heatedly, but my ears and tail appeared, betraying me.

"Whatever," she said, "Let's catch up."

"You just want to see Itachi," I said, rolling my eyes as we sped up to catch up to the two men in front of us. I knew her non-reply was an agreement, and jogged to catch up with her.

We entered through the double doors into a cool atmosphere and my ears and tail finally disappeared. We passed through a few corridors, all empty, until we reached another, where Hidan was leaning against the wall, playing with a PSP. His cloak was folded over and tied to his hips with a belt so that his torso was bare, but a few beads of sweat were still glistening on his skin.

I wondered why he was sweating—it was that hot out. I exchanged a glance with Yume-chan. She was nuts about Hidan as well—though only because he was funny to her. He looked up from his PSP for a moment, carelessly at first, but snapped his gaze back up when he saw Yume and me.

"Who the fuck is this?" he asked.

"We found them in the forest!" Tobi said excitedly, "Aren't they cute?"

"We're taking them to the Leader," Deidara-kun said, "They know about us, un."

"I like your shirt, by the way," Yume-chan snorted, and I glared at her in exasperation.

"So do I," he said, returning to his PSP.

"Wish you would leave my stuff alone for once, un."

"The fuck are you talking about? This is mine," Hidan said.

"Liar. Konan bought it for me, un."

"I will fucking sacrifice you to Jashin-sama if you tell me one more fucking time that this is yours. Konan gave it to you to give it to me. You're just fucking stupid."

Yume-chan laughed softly and, at Hidan's expectant glare, said, "You cuss even more in real life."

I nudged Yume-chan on her arm, and she cleared her throat.

"I mean, I've heard you that cuss a lot, but I didn't know it was true," she said, "That's what I meant—b-by—real l-life …"

I thought she started stuttering because of everyone looking at her as though she was insane, but then I saw Itachi and Kisame turning into the corridor and pointedly glaring at us. I stepped in behind Yume-chan, pretending to be her shadow again. Kisame-san's face was even freakier than normal.

"Ah, who's this?" Kisame asked.

Deidara-kun sighed, "We found them in the forest. They know all of our names. We're taking them to the Leader, un."

"They know all of our names?" Kisame asked, a look of confusion passing over his face.

"I'm Naresome Yume. It's n-nice to m-meet you, Itachi-kun," Yume-chan stuttered, having eyes only for the red-eyed nin, but he only grunted.

"Who's this?" Kisame asked, glancing at me from over Yume-chan's shoulder, and I looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to introduce me, but she was still just staring at Itachi. I rolled my eyes and looked at Tobi for help, who giggled excitedly.

"She's Amamhiro Yoku-chan!" he said excitedly, "She doesn't talk."

"She's fucking mute?" Hidan asked, and I shook my head sharply, hiding further behind Yume-chan to hide my ears and tail.

"She's shy," Tobi said affectionately, "And these ears and tail appear whenever she blushes! Isn't it cute?"

"That's enough, un," Deidara-kun said, "Let's go."

I followed Deidara-kun silently while Yume-chan stood still, staring at Itachi, until I pulled her away by her arm.

"See you later, Itachi-kun," she called over her shoulder.

"Just when I thought I wouldn't have to endure any more lovesick fangirls, un," Deidara sighed, and I grinned at a fuming Yume-chan.

"I'm not a lovesick fangirl!" she said heatedly.

"Yume-chan loves Itachi-san, Yume-chan loves Itachi-san!" Tobi chanted all way to another set of double doors. He had dodged all Yume-chan's attempts to hit him other the head easily, while I stared at her with a look that said 'way to go'.

Deidara-kun opened the large doors effortlessly and we entered, and Tobi's chants faded away instantly. Spiky rust-brown hair was visible above the high back of a chair, which turned to face us, and none other than the piercing-mad Pein was revealed.

"What's this?" he asked in a voice that sent chills down my spine, looking at Yume-chan and then at me hiding behind her as always.

"We found them in the forest, Leader-sama!" Tobi said, dragging the 'sama' out cheerfully.

"They know our names, and I didn't know what to make of them, un," Deidara-kun said.

"They know your names?" Pein asked.

"We know all of your names, to be more precise," Yume-chan said fearlessly. Oh, her guts was going to get both of us killed, but my voice failed me when I tried to stop her from continuing, "We know more than just your names, too."

"Deidara, Tobi, leave," Pein commanded, and they obeyed immediately.

When we were the only ones in the room, I started trembling. The room was dark and barely furnished, and the walls themselves gave off a vibe that left me feeling very unsafe.

"What are you names?" Pein asked.

"I'm Naresome Yume," Yume-chan said, "This is my friend Amahiro Yoku."

"And what do you know of us?" he asked.

"We know about your seven bodies, and the Akatsuki's motive to gain control over the whole world," Yume-chan said, "We know a bit of each Deidara, Tobi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi, Zetsu, Konan and the deceased Sasori's past."

'Dammit, Yume-chan', I thought, 'You didn't have to go that far.'

"Well, we can't have that kind of information leaking out, can we?" Pein said, the ghost of a smirk on his lips.

"So let us join," Yume-chan said simply. Damn, she was pushing our luck so far. We're going to die. I knew we were going to die.

"From which village are you?" he asked, "I see no forehead protectors."

"Well, we're not actually from any village," Yume-chan said uncomfortably, "We don't have forehead protectors, and we know of a lot of jutsus and the definition on how to use chakra, but we can't actually use it."

'Oh, damn, this is bad', I thought, 'We are so dead. So very, very dead. How is she not afraid of this man?'.

"Have you ever tried?" he asked.

"No."

Pein sighed, "Then I cannot let you join, but I cannot let you go either. You know where the base is, and you know too much about us."

"We don't actually know where the base is," she said, "We woke up in the forest, but we don't know how we got there. We were blindfolded on the way here. If we can't be of any other use, let us out as spies."

"I cannot allow that, either. I do not know you, and therefore I do not trust you."

Yume-chan was silent for a moment, and I hoped some of my panic was rubbing off on her, because she needed to see the mess she had put us in, "So what will you do with us?"

"I will allow to live and be trained here, within in the base, by some of the members," he replied, "Only if you agree to my terms, that is."

"What are your terms?"

"You are not allowed to leave the base at all, unless you are escorted by one of the members," he said, "Also, if you attempt to contact anyone outside the base, you will be killed instantly."

"Will it be like that forever?" Yume-chan asked slowly, "Can we do something to gain your trust?"

"I will think on it," he said, "You cannot use chakra, you say?" Yume-chan nodded. "As Deidara and Tobi were the ones who found you, they can train you. When you are on their level, we can talk once more on your options. You may leave. I will have a room prepared for you."

'One more time', I thought, 'We are so very, very dead.'


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: The following two chapters are just going to consist of Yume and Yoku's training, so it ought to be humerous. This chapter is mainly dedicated to Yume-chii, because she dedicated a Oneshot to me, and used the Guilt Attack to get me to write it.

**Chapter 3 – Yume's Training**

~ * ~Yume's POV ~ * ~

That asshole Pein couldn't possibly have been more brutal, could he? 'Not allowed to leave the base unless escorted by one of the members' … what the hell was he thinking? That meant we're not allowed out of the base, period. Itachi-kun was even meaner than I thought, but it made him so cute! He didn't even say a word to me … when I say it like that it sounds so sad …

Mine and Yoku's new room wasn't too bad. The beds were on separate sides of the room, there was a bedside cabinet beside each and a working desk at the foot of each. Between the beds was a large window.

My only problem was that everything was cream-coloured. As in, EVERYTHING. They really had no idea to decorate, did they? And I had no way of decorating myself because a CERTAIN SOMEONE forbid us from leaving, and there was no one I could ask to buy me some posters or anything because—firstly—I had no money. Secondly, they were all too mean and they wouldn't get me some, and Tobi was too stupid.

Yoku and I had to sleep in some of Konan's clothes, which were too big for both of us and smelled like paper—no shit, right? Deidara woke Yoku and me the following morning with a loud 'KATSU!' followed by a tiny bird exploding over both of our heads. Yoku just gasped and clutched her heart while I cursed and cussed and swore at Deidara. Honestly, I don't know what she sees in him.

"What the hell, man?" I yelled angrily after my cursing.

"That was unnecessary, Senpai," Tobi said timidly.

"Get up, get dressed and get out, un," Deidara said simply.

"Unless you haven't noticed, we don't actually have any clothes," I said irritably, "I'm not training in clothes that would fit an elephant."

"Don't say that so loudly, Yume-chan!" Tobi said, "Konan-chan will kill you!"

"She's not allowed to," I said simply, hoping it was true, "Kakuzu's got a lot of money, doesn't he? Ask him for a few bucks and take us to town."

"Kakuzu-san will kill us, Yume-chan!" Tobi said timidly.

"Bribe Hidan into getting money from Kakuzu," I said, and then lost my nerve and yelled, "WILL YOU PLEASE JUST GET US SOME PROPER CLOTHES?"

"Tobi, get Hidan to get them clothes," Deidara said, "You have an hour to get some money or I blast your ass to hell, un."

With that, they exited the room, and Yoku fell down again, whining, "I can't believe this!"

"What?"

"We never designed spare clothing!"

"We never thought this would happen," I said irritably, "Why design spare anything if you believe you'll never need it?"

"It was a good choice, though, yeah? Sending Tobi to get the money?" she asked.

"'Suppose so," I replied, and fell down too, "I'm going back to sleep."

~ * ~ Two Hours Later ~ * ~

Tobi had been chased all around the base and even outside and through the entire forest by a fuming Hidan and Kakuzu. Apparently he had given them each a letter—the stupid prick he was—one telling Hidan that Kakuzu was going to give him some money for being such a cool partner, and another telling Kakuzu that Hidan wanted money. Of course, when they met up for the exchange, they realized that Tobi was the only one stupid enough to set something like that up.

Luckily, however, Tobi had managed to get enough money from Kakuzu—though no one knew how—to buy Yoku and me three outfits and pyjamas each. Yoku's were, predictably, all black and purple while mine were black and blue; and pink pyjamas with pictures of baby bears on them. Yoku had not even managed to thank Tobi, which I had to do for her.

We were back at the base, inside a massive, empty, dimly lit room. Deidara had sent Tobi away, for fear of killing him, so it was just the three of us in the room.

"Well, I'm supposed to teach you the basic jutsus. You told me you already knew how chakra works, so I'm not going to go into that, un," he said with a bored tone, "Do you know how the basic jutsus work, un?"

"Depends on what you mean with 'basic jutsu'," I taunted him, "For someone like you, a basic jutsu is Replacement. For someone like, I don't know, Itachi-kun, a basic jutsu is Great Fireball."

Yoku glared at me angrily, and I felt a satisfied chill run through my body. Deidara took a deep breath with closed eyes and I grinned.

"Since you evidently already know, I'll leave you here. Call me once you can do a Replacement, Replication and Transformation, un."

He disappeared with a puff of smoke and Yoku shoved me angrily on the shoulder, "You can really be a bitch sometimes, you know that?"

"I was just teasing," I shrugged, "Come on, we have work to do."

"You're kidding, right?" she said, "You expect that, just because we know _how _to do the techniques, we'll magically be able to?"

"That's how Sakura passed her exams. Why can't we roll that way, too?" I asked. She pulled a face in disgust and went to the other side of the room.

It turned out that Yoku had been right. Watching the anime, it had looked so easy. Blue waves of light appeared and _Ta-Da! _the techniques were executed, but actually doing them proved way more difficult.

After a long time, Tobi called us for supper—I had begun wondering why I was so hungry—and neither of us were able to do, well, anything.

After an awkward supper in which I, despite myself, couldn't keep my eyes off Itachi-kun, we returned to the large room to practice, but we went to bed without any progress whatsoever, and I wondered if we even possessed chakra.

The following day went the same, and so did the next. I had a lot more patience than Yoku—who had started punching the walls in frustration, ears and tail waving furiously—and even I felt that I could explode from anger.

Finally, Tobi came to visit us. He greeted Yoku and walked over to me, "Yume-chan!"

"What's up, Tobi?" I asked, "Is Kakuzu and Hidan still after you?"

"Yes," he said sadly, "So I came out here to watch you and Yoku-chan."

"Well, I'm miserable beyond reason," I said, "I can't get this stuff right. Do you have any advice?"

"If you try to force it, you'll either end up getting no reaction or your chakra will hurt you, Yume-chan," he said. No shit, "You have to concentrate only on the technique you want to execute, and nothing else. Calm your mind. If you still can't get it, then …"

'Then there's no hope', I finished inside my head. I grinned, "Don't tell Yoku that unless she asks you, okay?"

"But she doesn't talk, Yume-chan," he said.

"Exactly. She has to learn."

I did as Tobi instructed. I calmed my mind and imagined my chakra circulatory system inside my head, the body and mind energy mixing inside my stomach, and then released it, "Bunshin no Jutsu!"

To my surprise and utter glee, a faint glimmer of an image of me flickered beside me before disappearing again. Tobi clapped his hands excitedly in applause, and I bowed playfully, chuckling.

After several more tries, the replication was flawless, but Tobi had already left with Deidara. They had gone on a mission. I saw Yoku walking toward me and smirked.

"Could you please help me?" she asked pleadingly, staring at my replication until I released the technique.

"Why didn't you ask Tobi?" I taunted.

"You know I can't," she snapped irritably.

"You've seen him several times, man. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with all of them four days straight. If you still can't talk to them, you'll never be able to," I told her.

"Please, just help me."

"Ask Tobi for advice when he comes back."

"Ugh," she said, turning away again. I knew I sounded rude, but I was only trying to help her.

Days passed and she barely made any progress. I knew she had chakra because finally, a week after we had arrived, her first glimmer of an after-image appeared, but disappeared seconds thereafter. Tobi stared at her the whole time when he was with us, and I knew he wanted to help her, but he obeyed my request.

After another week I perfected the Replacement technique and successfully transformed into Tobi, then Deidara and finally Itachi-kun. But Yoku, by that time, could only do the Replication.

Her temper got the better of her each time, and she started yelling cuss-words and punching the walls until her knuckles bled. The ears and tail she designed to appear whenever she was either embarassed or angry now permenantly showed. I felt sorry for her, and I wanted to tell her how to improve, but she needed to start talking with people.

I called Deidara in and showed him my three techniques, and he simply nodded. As we exited the room, he stopped in front of a panting, sweating Yoku. The skin on her knuckles were gone, and I could've sworn I saw some bone.

"Try relaxing and only concentrating on the technique, un," he said soothingly before we left the room.

To my surprise and utter glee, Deidara led me to another, smaller room where none other than Uchiha Itachi-kun stood waiting with a blank expression.

"She's all yours, un," Deidara said before leaving. Itachi-kun glared at Tobi until he left, as well.

"There are five different kinds of chakra natures," Itachi-kun began expressionlessly.

I already knew the whole rant about the chakra natures, but I listened silently just to hear his voice. He held up a square piece of paper—which I recognized to come from special trees fed and nurtured with chakra—and it took flame before my eyes. He then handed me a square piece of paper after explaining the reaction the paper would have to each kind of chakra.

"Take this and focus your chakra in it," Itachi-kun told me—his voice made my knees numb, and I wondered how long I would be able to endure my training sessions—handing me the piece of paper.

I held the piece of paper up and struggled a bit with focusing my chakra in it, but as soon as I succeeded it took flame just as Itachi-kun's had, and I felt my heart lift instantly. I had the same chakra nature as Itachi-kun! Awesome!

"The most basic fire jutsu I can teach you is Great Fireball," he said, and I smirked to myself.

I felt bad to be training without her, but whenever I tried to talk to her, Yoku would blow me off either by pretending to be asleep or turn her back on me and walk away.

After several failed and embarassing attempts at executing the Great Fireball technique, Itachi-kun wasn't gentle in telling me that I wasn't ready for it yet. Instead he taught me the training I knew Kakashi had given to Naruto and the others: running up a tree or, in my case, a wall. That was just as difficult. I ended up falling to the ground every time.

Tobi didn't like the tension between Yoku and me—he would ask why I wasn't visiting her and then I would go into Rant Mode every time and go on about how she was just weak before I knew it, and then felt angry with myself and just ignored him entirely—so he stopped visiting me during my training. Finally, after days, I saw bandages on her hands.

I snuck out of my room late at night to try and run up a wall to impress Itachi-kun. He had to give me some credit. I learned stuff that took Naruto years, in weeks.

The days passed slowly. Itachi-kun trained me for an hour each day how to land if I fell from great length, and I managed that pretty soon. But my chakra control was still crap, and soon Itachi-kun became so dejected he didn't even supervise me anymore.

After more long days of exhausting training and nearly ending up in the hospital wing because of excessive chakra use, I finally managed to run up the wall of the room and end up standing upside down from the ceiling. I grinned broadly at Itachi-kun when I showed him this, but he just grunted and told me to continue with the Great Fireball.

"You're so mean," I told him irritably, "Give me a break, man. I'm working really hard."

"Let me make something clear," he replied, "I'm here because I was ordered to be. I am not your friend, or your teacher. I am not impressed with your progress, but I'm not disappointed either. Stop trying to get me to like you and just focus on your training. You're weak."

That stung like hell, but before I could retort he had disappeared with a puff of smoke. I released the chakra and landed on the ground flawlessly, like he had taught me.

More days passed and I worked for hours on end trying to generate a fireball, only stopping when I knew I was near to fainting because of chakra loss. Yoku finally managed to thank Deidara, who had handed her her plate of food, as the bandages on her hands still looked a little bloody. I smirked when I saw a faint blush on his cheeks. The whole table stared at her with wide eyes.

"It fucking speaks!" Hidan exclaimed, causing her ears and tail to appear, "About time too!"

"You have a pretty voice, Yoku-chan!" Tobi said cheerfully.

"Why do you sometimes sprout the ears and tail of a wolf?" Zetsu asked, staring at her like she was some kind of alien.

"They appear whenever she's angry or embarassed," I said, trying to help, but for some reason she glared angrily at me before starting to eat.

This resulted in her not talking once for the next three days, disappointing everyone. She seemed thoroughly pissed all the time, and I wondered how her training was progressing.

Itachi-kun had started teaching me *melee combat with my scythe. It was a lot more difficult that it looked, swinging the tall weapon around all the time. Itachi-kun had to block attacks that would have caused me to chop my own arm or leg off, and I barely made any progress with only an hour a day.

After yet more days I managed to make a fireball the size of a beachball. Itachi-kun happened to peek into the room while I did this, and I could've sworn I saw a smrik before he disappeared again. After another few tries the fireball grew to twice that size.

I went to the sitting room that night after sorting things out with Yoku again, determined to actually rest for once. I knew there were circles under my eyes, but only because Hidan had told me at the dinner table, "Fuck, you look like a corpse."

Itachi-kun was sitting in one of two armchairs near the window, silently staring at the outside view. He was wearing a pair of leather skinnies and a plain black T-shirt, showing off his muscled torso and arms and setting my mind spinning. I took a deep breath and sat opposite him. When his eyes rested on me, they widened.

"How often do you sleep?" he asked softly.

"About four hours a night," I replied carelessly, staring out the window.

"Why do you work so hard?" he asked, "It's not like you have a mission to prepare for, or have the need to protect yourself from someone."

"There's no particular reason," I lied smoothly.

He was silent for a moment, and I looked at him, blue-green eyes meeting onyx ones. He seemed to be surprised before a faint smile tugged at his lips and he said, "You're very different … from the rest."

I shrugged, "I needed to show you I wasn't weak."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Finally! It's Yoku's turn again! ^ ^ A little more OOC'ness, but bear with me. If I describe the techniques incorrectly, then tough luck. I describe them like I understand them to be.

**Chapter 4 – Yoku's Training**

~ * ~Yoku's POV ~ * ~

I struggled a lot more than Yume-chan did, all because she was too proud to help me. I was so embarassed when Deidara-kun-kun led her away after she had perfected all three basic techniques, and told me to try and relax. I wondered whether he disliked me for being so violent—it was the reason I never had any friends.

I tried taking Deidara-kun's advice and took a few deep breaths before focusing on nothing but mixing the body and mind's energy inside my body before releasing it and, to my surprise, a perfect after-image of myself appeared.

After a week or so I managed to replace myself with a large boulder or log and could successfully transform into Deidara-kun. I caressed a lock of the hair that looked exactly like his, running my fingers over the smooth skin of the cheeks that were exactly like his before getting a hold of myself and calling him in to show him I could execute the techniques.

"Did you take my advice?" he asked softly, and I nodded silently, looking at the floor, "Come with me, un."

I followed him silently through a few unfamiliar corridors until he opened a door and we entered a room empty of other people. The far half of the walls were covered in posters of explosions and there were white clay statues lying all over the floor and surfaces on that half, and my breath caught when I realized I was in Tobi and Deidara-kun's room. Tobi's half was completely blank, like Yume-chan and my room. I stayed in the doorway, waiting for him to finish whatever it was he wanted to do here, and he looked at me expectantly.

"Sit down for a moment, un," he said, gesturing to his bed before moving to the desk and starting to rummage in the drawers.

Heat rushing to my face, I crossed the room, careful not to step on his statues, and sat down on the bed, watching him search for whatever it was he was looking for.

Finally he took a roll of bandages, cotton wool and balm and walked over to me. My ears and tail sprouted despite myself as he kneeled in front of me and softly took my left hand in his.

My imagination ran away with me, and I saw him wearing a suit instead of the deep purple T-shirt and black pants he actually wore. The bandages were really a silver ring with a small diamond—

I winced as he touched the wounds on my knuckles and reality returned. He had been trying to apply the balm using the cotton wool, and his head snapped up sharply when I winced.

"I'm sorry. Please bear with me. Kakuzu is out collecting a bounty and he's the only medic we have, un," he said.

I nodded and he touched the balm-covered cotton wool as gently as he could to my wounds, but it still burned terribly. I was so stupid. Why would I hit a wall like this without thinking of the consequences?

It seemed like utter torture, but I managed to keep myself from screaming and yelling out in pain, and finally, after a while, my wolf ears and tail disappeared again. After what seemed like hours Deidara-kun finished bandaging my hands, and he caressed them once before looking up at me with a faint smile touching his lips.

I swallowed hard. I was going to do this, I was going to manage it, and I did. I choked out the words, "Th-thank you, D-Deidara-kun-kun."

He looked shocked for a moment, seemingly struggling with himself, and I looked away as my ears and tail sprouted again.

"No problem, un," he finally said, and he stood up. I looked at him just in time to note the faint pink-ish tint to his tanned skin.

After a few moments, he led me through more corridors and into another large room, but not quite as large as the first one. Kisame sat on a desk, caressing the bandages on his sword, until we entered. His eyes still totally freaked me out, and I cringed despite myself.

"Good luck, un," Deidara-kun told me before leaving. I kept my eyes on Kisame as his face slid into a smile.

"You're the one who doesn't talk, aren't you?" he asked.

'Well, duh!' I thought, 'I'm one of two new arrivals, and the other has already made her existance known to the whole world with that attitude of hers'.

"I'll just have to keep it simple, huh?" he said, "Do you know about chakra nature manipulation?" I nodded. "Do you know which element you are?" I shook my head.

He nodded and reached inside his cloak and handed me the small square piece of paper I recognized so vividly. I already knew about the reactions the paper gave to the elements, and I knew what to do with it. Struggling for a few long, embarassing moments, I managed to focus chakra in the piece of paper. Instantly it got soggy and a few water droplets dripped to the floor. So I was water.

"There aren't really any basic water techniques," Kisame sighed, "I'll start with the Water Clone. It's the easiest I can think of." I nodded and he continued, "I'll just learn from Itachi's mistakes and teach you to run up a wall first, shall I? Do you know about that?" I nodded. "Can you do it?" I shook my head. "Well, as you progress I'll teach you to land as comfortably as possible, but this might be a little difficult, since you won't talk."

I turned my back to Kisame and faced the wall. I followed Deidara-kun's earlier advice and forced myself to concentrate and stay calm as I folded my fingers into the necessary seal, and tried focusing a steady amount of chakra in the soles of my feet.

I didn't even manage the first step and fell to the ground, landing on my head. I let out a grunt of pain.

"See, when that happens, kick the wall with the foot other than the one that slipped to turn yourself in mid-air, then land on your hands to do a kind of back-flip," Kisame said as I got up, "It sounds a lot easier than it is, but you'll get there."

I nodded and tried again. This time I focused more chakra in my feet, careful not to focus too much, and tried again. I made the second step, and when it slipped I kicked hard against the wall with my other foot, but only ended up sliding on the wooden floor instead of just landing. Anger flared inside me, but I cooled it down with a deep breath. Kisame's stare was making me uncomfortable and I had a hard time concentrating, but I had no way to let him know that.

After only a few days I managed to stand upside down from the ceiling, and when Kisame grinned, I released the chakra, twirling in mid-air and landing lightly on my feet. I smiled at him. I had managed not to freak out over his eyes and gills anymore.

"You're doing really good," he complimented, "Are you ready for the Water Clone?" I nodded. "All right, but I think it would be a lot easier where there's water. Come on."

I was surprised at how nice Kisame was as he led me through a few corridors until we reached yet another dimly lit room, where a large pool set glimmering lights all around the room. I half thought there to be sharks in the pool but it was entirely empty.

"The Water Clone is a lot like a normal replication," Kisame explained, "Only, you use a lot more chakra, and you draw on the water for power. It's nearly impossible to execute a water technique when you're not near a water source, like a lake or ocean, which is a major downside. Water techniques also consume more chakra, but they're more powerful and cause raw damage to anything they encounter."

After nearly a week—Yume-chan and I barely even talked anymore. I just didn't want to see her. She made everything so much more difficult for me—I executed my first Water Clone, and I managed to croak out a short 'thank you' to Kisame before we headed to dinner.

Nearly everyone was already eating and talking and arguing across the table when Kisame and I arrived. It was chaos as always. Hidan was cussing loudly at Konan for making paper roses shatter to pieces in front of his face the whole time. Zetsu was growling angrily at Itachi for eating a salad, not that the sharingan user cared much. Kakuzu was counting money while eating and Tobi talking cheerfully with Yume-chan. After Kisame sat down I noticed there were only two seats open, beside each other. I headed to the counter just as the fridge's door closed and Deidara-kun emerged. I nearly jumped in fright, but managed to contain myself.

My hands were trembling. They still hurt terribly. I took a plate from the pile on the counter, pointedly not looking at Deidara-kun. I gasped softly in fright as a wave of pain shot through my hand at the sudden weight and it fell to the floor. I shut my eyes and braced myself for the noise of the shattering glass, but it never came.

When I looked down I saw that a clay bird had caught it, and it landed in Deidara-kun's hand, a small smile tugging at his lips. I blushed and smiled thankfully before reaching out to take the plate, but he shook his head.

"I'll do it," he said, "What do you want, un?"

I looked around at the food on the counter. Definitely not salad for fear of pissing Zetsu off, and definitely not fish for fear of pissing Kisame off. I silently pointed to the chicken pie.

"Go sit down. I'll bring it to you, un," he said. Running the tips of my fingers through my hair in embarassment, I sat down on Tobi's other side, leaving Deidara-kun to sit beside Konan.

After a few more chaotic moments, Deidara-kun arrived, setting my plate down in front of me before sitting down.

"Th-thank you, D-Deidara-kun-kun," I managed to stutter.

Everyone went quiet—Zetsu stopped yelling, Kakuzu stopped counting, Tobi stopped talking, Hidan stopped cussing and Konan froze with a paper rose still in progress in the palm of her hand.

"It fucking speaks!" Hidan exclaimed, and I felt my wolf ears and tail sprout yet again, my face just about as hot as the sun. Was it really THAT necessary to draw so much attention to me just because I spoke for the first time in days? "About time, too!"

"You have such a pretty voice, Yoku-chan!" Tobi cooed, and I started trembling with embarassment. I looked down at my food.

"Why do you sometimes sprout the ears and tail of a wolf?" Zetsu asked.

"It happens when she's embarassed or angry," Yume-chan said carelessly.

I glared at her and thought, 'Well, thank you for letting everyone know that. Now they'll know that, if I sprout ears near Deidara-kun, I'm embarassed, and then they'll know I like him!'

After that, I didn't speak at the dinner table again. I was utterly pissed. I just smiled at Deidara-kun when he helped me and, one night, he changed my bloody bandages again when he caught me struggling with them in the sitting room.

For the following few days I spent as much time as I could in the room with the pool, until I managed to make three clones at once. After that I pretended to step on the water and looked expectantly at Kisame and, to my surprise, he knew what I was talking about.

"You want to learn to walk on the water?" he asked. I nodded. "It's the same as walking on a wall. The chakra consumed is just a little more, and has to be made solid. You have excellent chakra control. You'll be able to do it in no time."

I smiled appreciatively and formed the necessary seal before focusing a steady amount of chakra in my feet and solidifying it as best I could. I gasped in fright as I nearly fell entirely into the pool, but Kisame caught me by my upper arm, steadying myself again. I smiled appreciatively.

It was a lot more difficult than it had sounded. Solidifying chakra took a great deal of concentration, and the effort it took not to start banging my head against the wall in frustration could have been used to lift a mountain.

One afternoon, a few days afterwards, I still had not managed more than a few steps on the water, as my concentration crumbled each time, I had been on the verge of punching the wall again when Kisame entered the room, and he stopped me right before my hand could make contact with the stone.

"Why are you so violent?" he sighed. I shrugged. "You don't know?" I nodded. "Did you inherited it from your father or someone?" I shrugged again, and he sighed, "How about we do some combat training for now? If your body is stronger, your chakra will be, as well." I nodded. "I presume you prefer *melee combat, seeing as you have a dual-bladed sword?" I shook my head, and he frowned. I sighed and imitated drawing an arrow on the string of a bow. "You prefer ranged combat?" I nodded. "Then why do you have a sword?"

I sighed and gestured for him to follow me, and led him to mine and Yume-chan's room. She wasn't there. I supposed she was out stalking Itachi. I grabbed at the hilt of my sword and showed it to Kisame, smiling and tracing the lines of the purple engravings on the black metal.

"You think swords look better?" he guessed. I nodded. "Well, seeing as your chakra control is so good, you won't necessarily always need close combat, but it would be good if you rather perfected training with the sword first." I nodded. "Follow me."

Kisame had me do basic target practices for a few days—they were roughly the shape of the human body and the red bull's eye marks were the vital spots. I sucked. For days on end I never got near the red mark with either the kunais or shuriken, though the stars were easier to handle for me.

After a few days he had me run around inside the base and do other basic exercises at noon so that I could get fit, train me with the target practices for an hour, followed by sparring with the sword for an hour—he had more trouble stopping me from cutting myself than cutting him—and walking on water for another hour. After that I was totally beat and barely had time to practice my Water Clone and other basic techniques before passing out.

Finally, one night, I was awake when Yume-chan returned to the room, grumpily saying, "Hi. Still not talking to me?"

"Still being a bitch?"

"What is your _problem_?" she snapped angrily, and I looked at her for the first time. There were deep circles under her eyes and she looked pale as a ghost. Unlike me, she lost her tans shortly after getting them, "I try to help you but you keep throwing it in my face. Why is that?"

"When do you try to help?" I cried, "You let me suffer for days after I practically beg you for advice and then you go and tell everyone why my ears and tail appear!"

"I didn't give you advice because I wanted you to ask someone on your own, so that you can start talking to people!" she yelled angrily, "I'm not always going to be by your side, you know! I'm not always going to be able to read your sign language and play Translator!"

"Why couldn't you just be gentler about it?" I asked. I felt bad now. I should have known. She always says things that seem rude at first glance but usually it's just to help.

"How?" she yelled, "Tell me how, and I'll do it next time!"

"I don't know—I—what about telling everyone about my ears?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Why didn't you want anyone to know about that?" she asked irritably, "Do you expect people _not _to get curious when you randomly get another set of ears and a freaking tail? What did you expect? And how in hell was I supposed to know you didn't want them to find out the reason? You never freaking talk to me anymore!"

"I …" I started, not knowing what I wanted to say, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," she snapped, "Just stop jumping to conclusions all the time and start actually talking to people. I'm going to the sitting room."

With that, she left the room, leaving me feeling like a complete cretin. I fell down dejectedly on my bed. I realized that I had just been pissed with myself all along for causing me to barely be able to use my hands, and for not being able to talk to strangers, and most of all not talking to Yume-chan.

She was my best friend. I knew that, if she hadn't come with me, I would have suffered beyond reason. I wouldn't have been able to talk to Deidara-kun and Tobi that very first day, meaning I would have been killed and I would have never learned these awesome techniques.

I practically owed her my life. I vowed to myself never to jump to conclusions when she said something, or didn't say something, again. More than that, I was going to try my best to start talking, starting with thanking Deidara-kun and Kisame for their guidance so far.

I smiled. I didn't miss my old life at all. I was home.

It kind ends on a closed note, doesn't it? ._.

This isn't the end—in fact, it's far from that. There's going to be at least ten more chapters, no joke, so hopefully the story isn't too boring just yet.

For those who don't know, *melee combat is close combat, in other words, Taijutsu.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Please, no flames about OOC'ness. It's kinda necessary, seeing as Akatsuki members are mostly heartless bitches -_-ll

**Chapter 5 – Candy Coloured Skies**

After Yume-chan and I had made up, Tobi seemed a lot more at ease. He took turns—when he wasn't out on a mission with Deidara-kun—to visit us, switching every hour or so.

After telling Yume-chan that I really was trying to talk, and that I just needed a little more time, she agreed to being my translator again, and asked Kisame if he could be a little harder on me at my request. His niceness and helpfulness kept me soft, and I needed to be hard if I was ever going to be allowed out on a mission. He had agreed with a confused expression.

A few weeks after Yume-chan and I started talking again, my hands were completely healed and I was able to hit bull's eyes in every target, but I was still too slow and took too long to aim. Kisame had me do five push-ups if I took longer than five minutes to throw at all three spots on a target.

I had started managing not to go anywhere near my skin with the dual-bladed sword, and had perfect control over it regarding the fact that Kisame didn't need to block hits that aimed for my own skin anymore. He still blocked every one of my hits, however.

By this time I could make ten Water Clones at once, and walk around flawlessly on water. In celebration, Kisame gave me a silver ring that looked like there was water flowing inside it, but would not answer any questions about it. I wore it every day, on my left forefinger.

I was finally able get over my fear of talking in front of strangers for a few seconds at the dinner table, so I asked Yume-chan to pass the salt, and the whole table went quiet again.

"You're finally talking, huh?" Kisame asked, and I blushed.

"Aww, Yoku-chan, you have such a pretty voice!" Tobi said for the second time, clasping his hands under his chin affectionately.

"You guys are surprised now, but wait till she's completely used to you," Yume-chan said, "The trick is to get her to shut up."

"She can't be worse than Tobi, un," Deidara-kun said.

"You'd be surprised," Yume-chan said.

"She can't be fucking worse than you, though," Hidan said with a smirk.

"You'd be even more surprised," she replied.

"D-don't be mean," I stuttered.

"So how's your training coming along, both of you?" Konan asked. I gaped at her in surprise. She was actually interested? Obviously Yume-chan was first to answer.

"My Great Fireball set the whole room on fire!" she said gleefully, "It was so freaking awesome!"

"Don't exaggerate," Itachi said calmly.

"I'm not exaggerating," she said irritably, "You're so bloody mean. Give me a break, man."

"How about you, Yoku?" Konan asked.

"She can make ten Water Clones and walk on water," Kisame said with a smirk after I had gulped nervously, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

"Hey, man, I want to walk on water, too!" Yume-chan whined, glaring at Itachi.

"Your chakra control is terrible," he replied in a deep voice, making her blush and the rest of the table chuckle, "It'll take you years."

"I'll kick your ass one of these days," she said through gritted teeth, making several people chuckle.

"Good luck with that," Hidan said, "I can't even lay a fucking scratch on him."

"Yeah, but your scythe is a slow ass piece of metal that you must've picked up at a scrapyard," she snapped, causing Hidan to flush with anger and a few others to burst out laughing.

"I will fucking sacrifice you, woman," he growled.

"Bet Jashin-sama isn't the only one who wants me," she said confidently, winking seductively at him and causing me to chuckle in spite of myself.

"Don't be mean," I told her again, and this time they accepted my comment, and I smiled.

The following morning Deidara-kun woke us up, yet again, at dawn with a loud 'KATSU!' followed by a tiny bird exploding above our heads. I had grown somewhat used to it, but Yume-chan still swore every single time.

"G-good morning, D-Deidara-kun," I stuttered through Yume-chan's cussing.

"'Morning, un."

"I just wish you would stop that, you damned Faggot-Face!" Yume-chan yelled after her swearing, "If you want to wake me up, just open the curtains or something! And what the hell are you doing, just barging into our room?!"

"Don't be grumpy, Yume-chan," Tobi said, dragging the 'chan' out and causing her to roll her eyes.

"Get out. We'll be down in a minute," she snapped, and they exited.

As we got dressed, Yume-chan still had not stopped her grumpy muttering, and I glared at her for a moment.

"What?" she snapped.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"I'm sick of that asshole with his 'un'ing and going 'KATSU!' for every damned thing," she said, poorly imitating Deidara's voice.

"I'll tell him to stop that," I said, "We can get an alarm clock."

"As if that'd be any better," she snapped.

I sighed and just let it go, tracing the familiar road to the room with the pool to wait for Kisame. I walked on the water, going in circles all around the pool before growing bored and making Water Clones.

I sparred with them for a long while, throwing them with kunai and shuriken and blocking their attacks until I finally defeated them, but Kisame had still not returned. I looked up lazily from where I was sitting at the edge of the pool when I heard knocks on the door, and saw Deidara-kun entering, and my heart lifted.

"Kisame-san is out on a last-minute solo mission. Sorry I could only tell you now, un," he said, and my heart fell again. I nodded and got up.

When I reached the door, he was still standing there, and looking at me oddly. I tried to brush it off by walking past him.

"Do you want to go outside for a while, un?" he asked. I turned around and stared at him, surprised. "Itachi-san is training with Naresome in the forest, and I thought you might want to go outside for a bit, un."

I smiled and nodded greedily. I missed the feel of a soft breeze and the hot sunlight on my skin; the grass tickling my bare feet and the sound of rustling willow tree leaves.

Deidara-kun took my sword and had a clay bird take it up to mine and Yume-chan's room before he led me down a few staircases until we got outside, and I felt my legs root me to the spot for a moment, savouring the moment of feeling sunlight for the first time in a long time. A faint smile tugged at his lips when he glanced back at me, and he led me to the edge of the large clearing.

"Can you run on the trees, un?" he asked. I wanted to say yes, and not seem weak, but I could vividly imagine running into a branch and the embarassment that would come with that, and I shook my head. He sighed, and I felt my stomach squirm uncomfortably. Was he going to take me inside again, telling me it was a bad idea after all?

I watched as he reached inside his pocket and gaped when he retrieved his hand and a small clay bird sat in his palm. He threw it in front of him and made a seal with his other hand, and its size amplified so that it was big enough to carry both of us.

At the thought I glanced at him, panicked. I didn't want to ride on a clay bird that looked like it didn't have anything on its body I could hold on to. Another smile tugged at his lips and he held out his hand. I was about to take it when I saw the open mouth in his palm, and fought the urge to pull a face in disgust. He rolled his eyes and the mouth closed. I hesitantly took his hand.

In a split second we were sitting on the clay bird's neck. I was sitting behind Deidara-kun, and he had wrapped my arms around his waist. Without warning, the bird took off, and I felt my heart squirm uncomfortably in my chest. I buried my face in his back and clutched tightly to his cloak.

'Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down', I kept telling myself.

"Yoku-san, look," he said over his shoulder, and I shook my head, "There's nothing to be afraid of. I won't let you fall, un."

I slowly turned my head, peeking from behind the cloth, but before I could get a proper view an unexpected gust of wind swung the bird dangerously, and I buried my face in his back again.

I heard Deidara-kun chuckle before we descended a little. "The wind won't do that anymore. Just look at the view, un."

I shook my head again, refusing, and flinched when I felt his warm hand over mine, assuring me. I felt like whining in protest, but the lump in my throat was as bad as ever. I risked another peek.

When I got over the general fear of being so high off the ground that, if I fell, I would literally break every bone in my body, I looked at the beauty of where we were.

There were mountain ranges visible just over the horizon, purple-blue in the distance. Coming from them ran a wide lake with clear blue water, shimmering in the warm sunlight, giving way to the a short-ish waterfall, and it was surrounded by willow trees. As we circled in the sky, the base came into view again, only its tip visible above the massive trees, densely packed together.

"The Village of Konoha is not far from the other side of those mountains," Deidara-kun said softly.

The bird swung dangerously, and I was pulled from my trance, burying my face in Deidara-kun's back again, and he chuckled, holding my hand tighter.

"Do you want to go to the lake, un?" he asked, and I nodded silently.

My legs were numb and trembling when I finally got back on the ground. Deidara-kun let the bird become small again before placing it inside the bag where the rest of his clay was. I was about to take a step forward when support failed me, and I fell to the ground.

My wolf ears and tail appeared as Deidara-kun caught me just before I hit the ground, and picked me up bridal style, carrying me to a willow tree on the bank of the lake and placing me in the shade.

"Maybe I overdid it a little, un," he said, sitting down beside me.

We silently stared out over the peaceful waters, where a fish or two plopped up to the surface before falling back into the water. A soft breeze blew into our faces, easing the heat of the sun. Finally my wolf ears and tail disappeared again.

"Why can't you talk to people you don't know, un?" Deidara-kun suddenly asked.

I looked sideways and up at him in surprise. I swallowed hard, trying to ease the lump in my throat, and managed to choke out, "I-it's a long s-story."

"Will I be able to hear it some time, un?" he asked, still looking out over the lake. I nodded.

More silent moments passed. They were a little strained and uncomfortable. After a few minutes a clay bird appeared, carrying a few fruits, half of which Deidara-kun handed to me with a faint smile, and we ate together in more silence.

When I finished I got up and walked onto the water. Soon I heard Deidara-kun's footsteps on the water, following me, so I turned around, swallowing hard and forcing out the words.

"I-I'm just g-going to run a-around for a w-while," I stuttered.

"Why would you do that, un?" he asked.

I cleared my throat, swallowing hard and frowning, "I-I love w-water, and I love r-running, so I-I'll run on w-water f-for the first t-time."

He looked at me oddly for a moment, and I felt a blush creep onto my face, followed by the annoying twitch of my head and tailbone signalling the appearance of the ears and tail. I turned around to hide my heated face, and started jogging, enjoying the feel of the cool breeze and the water sprinkling on my shins. Soon I heard footsteps beside me.

"I'll run with you, un," Deidara-kun said.

Thanks to Kisame, I was a lot more fit than I used to be, which meant I could run a lot longer than I used to, and it gave me time to think over everything. Finally having a clear mind, I realized I would gladly trade a family that only spoiled and pretended to love me for a day of running beside Deidara-kun.

I did miss the rest of mine and Yume-chan's group of friends, the other six who were the only people in the world who I actually talked with—I didn't talk to my family because I hated them—without stuttering and trembling.

A few hours passed in which I had only taken a few breaks, and none of them were longer than twenty minutes. The sun was setting, and the sky was starting to fill with colour, so I fell down against the trunk of one of the willow trees, watching as Deidara-kun fell down beside me.

I wiped sweat from my brow as the sky got brighter. Soon it was simply a bliss of colour. It was lit with a baby-blue and creamy white background while long, thin clouds of purple-blue seemed to be painted over it. Creamy pink danced with a sea of bright orange, stroking the horizon over the trees.

"Wow," I breathed, surprised that there was no lump in my throat and momentarily forgetting who was beside me. That is, until strong, warm fingers entwined with mine.

I felt a deep blush matching some of the colours in the sky, and my ears and tail annoyingly decided to appear again. Deidara-kun chuckled, pulling his fingers from mine and instead wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer, and we watched the sky until the last ray of light faded.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Hidan yelled.

Those were the first things we heard as we entered the sitting room, fingers entwined, where the Jashinist had been pacing up and down, clutching at his head, until his eyes rested on us. Itachi was sitting in his armchair, staring at the stars outside as usual, and Yume-chan sat across from him, glaring at us irrtably.

"We were at the lake, un," Deidara-kun said simply, leading me to one of the couches sideways facing the plasma screen, not letting go of my hand.

"The—the lake?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Hidan yelled, "You can't go waltzing out of the base, all lovey-dovey, without telling anyone!"

"And why is that?" Deidara-kun asked, sounding bored, "You were all out on missions, un."

"The fuck?!" the Jashinist yelled, "Because the Leader will eat your face for dinner if he finds out that you let her out of the base, that's why!"

"We're allowed out of the base if we're escorted by someone, you sacrifice-mad prick," Yume-chan said irritably, surprising me. I thought she liked Hidan.

"Did you just-"

"Let it go, Hidan," Kakuzu said from the corner, where he had been silently counting money.

"Why do you care if my face is eaten, anyway, un?" Deidara-kun asked in a drawling voice.

"Because then I won't have the fucking pleasure of sacrificing you to Jashin-sama," he replied, clutching his necklace.

"Yoku-chan!" a loud cry sounded from the hallway, but it was clearly on the other side, "Yoku-chaaaaan! Where have you gone?"

"She's in the sitting room, you blithering idiot!" Yume-chan yelled while Hidan was still silently fuming. Instantly Tobi appeared, and he fell down beside me, pulling my hand from Deidara-kun's grasp and gripping both my hands tightly.

"Are you okay, Yoku-chan?" he asked, panicked, "Are you hurt? Were you and Deidara-senpai kidnapped?"

I shook my head, assuring him I'm fine, just as Deidara-kun said in a voice plainly filled with hateful anger, "Tobi …"

"Senpai?" Tobi said, letting my hand go.

At the look of Deidara-kun's expression and the small white spider in the palm of his hand, Tobi disappeared down the hall in a blur. Before Deidara-kun could let the spider start running after the masked boy, I placed my hand over his, gently shaking my head.

"Yoku, take your boyfriend and hold your romance elsewhere," Yume-chan said irritably, "You're annoying me."

"I will blast you to hell if you say one more word, Naresome, un," Deidara-kun said.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Sorry if this chapter is a little long. There's just a lot of stuff I want in it, and it ended up being longer than I expected.

**Chapter 6 – An Unexpected Surprise**

~ * ~ Yume's POV ~ * ~

I hated Deidara so badly. He was such an annoying prick. I mean, is it really necessary to yell 'KATSU!' for the whole building to hear and make a clay spider explode in front of my face? Opening the curtains would wake me up—same results, less than half the effort.

I resorted to cussing and swearing at him each morning, hoping it would make him get depressed and kill himself. To think I actually thought he was cool back in our world …

I spent the entire day executing the Great Fireball technique, trying to get it big enough so that it had the potential to burn a house down in seconds. Itachi-kun was as grumpy as ever. Pein had stopped giving him missions altogether, claiming that he should supervise me, and he took his irritation at the Leader out on me, which is really sad and unfair.

I performed the necessary seals for the millionth time that day and breathed tiredly, releasing a flow of chakra, "Katon, Gokakyou no Jutsu!"

I blew through the hole my forefinger made and nearly jumped with glee when the fireball nearly filled up the whole room and ended less than three feet from where Itachi-kun sat on the other side of the room, but he didn't even look up from the manga he was reading when the fireball dispersed again.

"You didn't even look, did you?" I asked irritably. He ignored me, like he usually did. "You're a dick, you know that?" He still ignored me, so I took a deep breath and yelled at the top of my voice, "WILL YOU PLEASE TEACH ME THE NEXT TECHNIQUE?!"

"Why should I do that?" he asked calmly, as though I had been talking to him calmly. I groaned in anger.

"If you had lifted your head a few inches you would have seen that I COMPLETED THE BLOODY TECHNIQUE, MEANING IT CAN'T GET ANY BIGGER, MEANING YOU CAN START TEACHING ME THE NEXT ONE, YOU MEAN PRICK!"

"Why should I teach you another technique when you're not even grateful for the first?" he asked.

"Because you're charged with training me, and training means teaching me new stuff," I snapped, "I will drag your ass to the Leader's room and tell him just what a pathetic teacher you are."

I was still nuts about the Uchiha, but he was so mean to me. Telling me I was weak on a daily basis and not even acknowledging the freaking size of the fireball I had just made. What kind of person does that?

I took a deep breath and cleared my sore throat, changing tactic, "Itachi-sama, will you please teach me another fire technique?"

"Why don't I teach you Ameterasu and watch you kill yourself trying it?" he asked simply, still not looking up.

"Because you're an awesome teacher and awesome teachers don't teach their students techniques that will cause them to kill themselves," I said, dangerously keeping my voice sweet and innocent. I was going to kill him one of these days.

"I am not your friend or your teacher-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I snapped, "You've been repeating the same sentence every day. You're not my friend or my teacher. You're neither impressed nor disappointed with my skills and I should stop trying to get you to like me and instead focus on my training. I get it!"

I saw the ghost of a smirk on his face before he finally shut the manga and stood up, "Follow me."

"Finally!" I exclaimed, gladly tailing him as we passed through several corridors, which started becoming familiar, and I groaned in anger as we ended up in the kitchen. It couldn't be this late already. I looked out the kitchen window and saw that it was, indeed, minutes before sunset, "Are you freaking kidding me?" I asked as he sat down and helped himself to some salad, pointedly glaring at Zetsu while doing so.

Yoku was already sitting between Tobi and Deidara as always, and I took my seat beside Tobi just as Hidan and Kakuzu entered, Hidan cussing at Kakuzu for always only caring about money. I saw a clay bird the size of a fingernail flying toward Hidan and with a soft 'Katsu!" from the bomber the bird exploded in front of his face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Hidan yelled angrily, aiming to punch Deidara over the head, but the blonde blocked his hit by grabbing his forearm and Hidan flinched away, yelling even more. I guessed the mouth on Deidara's palm had bit him.

"Stop cussing so much, un."

"Stop it, Hidan," Konan's strict voice said from the doorway when Hidan had made to punch Deidara again, and she sat down beside Deidara as Hidan walked away.

"Stop eating my children," Zetsu growled as Itachi-kun took an exceptionally large bite of salad.

"Who's their mother?" I snorted, taking a bite of my pork.

"And if they are your fucking children, why are they in his plate and not on your lap, screaming 'Daddy, daddy!'?" Hidan snorted, seeming to have forgotten his quarrel with Deidara. Before anyone else could speak, a soft voice sounded from beside me.

"Y-Yume-chan, could you p-pass the s-salt?" Yoku asked.

The whole table went quiet.

"You're finally talking, huh?" Kisame asked, causing her to blush.

"Aww, Yoku-chan, you have such a pretty voice!" Tobi said for the second time, clasping his hands under his chin affectionately.

"You guys are surprised now, but wait till she's completely used to you," I said truthfully, "The trick is to get her to shut up."

"She can't be worse than Tobi, un," Deidara said carelessly.

"You'd be surprised," I told him.

"She can't be fucking worse than you, though," Hidan told me with a smirk.

"You'd be even more surprised," I replied.

"D-don't be mean," Yoku stuttered, causing a few people to stare at her for a moment again.

"So how's your training coming along, both of you?" Konan asked.

"My Great Fireball set the whole room on fire!" I bragged before she could say anything, "It was so freaking awesome!"

"Don't exaggerate," Itachi-kun said calmly.

"I'm not exaggerating," I said irritably, "You're so bloody mean. Give me a break, man."

"How about you, Yoku?" Konan asked.

"She can make ten Water Clones and walk on water," Kisame said with a smirk. Irritation ran through me. The little asshole …

"Hey, man, I want to walk on water, too!" I told Itachi-kun, glaring at him.

"Your chakra control is terrible," he replied in a deep voice, causing me to flush, "It'll take you years."

"I'll kick your ass one of these days," I said through gritted teeth, making several people chuckle.

"Good luck with that," Hidan said, "I can't even lay a fucking scratch on him."

"Yeah, but your scythe is a slow ass piece of metal that you must've picked up at a scrapyard," I snapped, causing Hidan to flush with anger and a few others to burst out laughing.

"I will fucking sacrifice you, woman," he growled.

"Bet Jashin-sama isn't the only one who wants me," I told him confidently, deliberately winking seductively at him.

"Don't be mean," Yoku told me again.

"I'm not mean," I argued, "I just speak my mind."

"It's a pity your power isn't as much as your talking," Itachi-kun said.

"I will freaking kill you one of these days," I told him angrily.

Deidara's traditional method of waking Yoku and me up caused me to get even angrier than usual, and I cussed and swore at him for several minutes before finally just yelling at him and telling him to get out. Honestly, the guy needed to get a hobby, or a new mission.

I felt bad afterwards, because I had taken some of my anger out on Yoku. I made a mental note to apologize to her as I made my way to the room where Itachi-kun and I trained, to find him leaning against the wall beside the closed door.

"Follow me," he said simply.

Despite my excitement at finally learning a new technique, I told him grumpily, "Good morning to you, too."

He didn't even react with a grunt or twitch or anything, ticking me off even more. He led me outside—to my surprise—and through the forest until we reached the less dense part where Yoku and I had first woken up and even further until we were in a field empty of anything and everything except grass and rocks.

"I'm going to try and teach you the technique Phoenix Fire," Itachi-kun said, "The basic idea is the same as with the Great Fireball, only this one is for long-ranged attacks. The trick is with how skilled you are with your chakra. Here, instead of releasing a great amount of chakra at once to generate a large fireball, you're going to release it bit by bit, and more forcibly. Understand?"

"I think so, yeah."

Itachi-kun showed me the seals and watched as I failed time and time again. 'What is it with my chakra?' I thought bitterly each time the technique failed, 'I kick ass with combat, but this crap is just beyond me.'

I wasn't surprised when I glanced over my shoulder and saw Itachi-kun reading his manga again, but I still felt a pang of irritation.

The sun rose and generated a heat I had never felt before. Or maybe it just seemed hotter because I was surrounded by failed attempts at a fire technique. I kept releasing all the chakra at once, like with the Great Fireball, instead of bit by bit, like Itachi-kun had told me to. This resulted in it backfiring each time and nothing more than smoke escaped my mouth.

More hours passed and I grew hungry, I was sweating and I swore I was on the verge of fainting, but Itachi-kun would hear nothing of my pleas.

Finally I saw the sun on the verge of touching the horizon, and Itachi-kun got up, "Come. We must return to the base."

"Let's watch the sunset first," I said, falling down on the grass and waiting for the splash of colours I had never been in time to watch.

"I thought you were hungry."

"I can wait ten minutes, and so can you. Come on," I said, patting the grass beside me, "Watch the sunset with me."

"I have watched the sunset before. It's nothing more than the end of the day," he said, "Come, girl."

"Don't you 'come, girl' me," I snapped irritably as the first signs of yellow and pink started showing, "I told you I'm watching the sunset. Are you going to watch it with me?"

"I am not your friend-"

"Or my teacher, or disappointed, or impressed. Shut your freaking mouth for once," I said before I could stop myself. I was so sick of his annoying attitude. My eyes widened in awe at the pinks and purples, blues, creams and oranges in the sky as though it was painted out of the imagination of the most skilled artist.

"Come, you have seen the sunset now," Itachi-kun said.

Before I could protest, I was hoisted into the air by the back of my collar. I choked when he let me go and yelled, "Are you trying to kill me?"

"I'm trying to obey my orders," he snapped, "You're not allowed out after sunset."

"The sun hasn't set yet!" I cried as he gripped my wrist painfully and dragged me forward.

I was thoroughly pissed off when we entered through the front doors of the base, and didn't feel like seeing Yoku, so I followed Itachi-kun to the sitting room. Hidan was pacing up and down the room irritably while Kakuzu sat silently in a corner. Itachi-kun took the armchair he always sat in, and I fell down in the armchair opposite his, glaring at him angrily.

Why did he have to be so damn handsome? Why couldn't his looks just match his stupid attitude to make it easier for me to try and get over him?

"Hidan, what's up?" I asked the Jashinist, trying to take my mind off things.

"That fucking idiot and your friend still haven't returned," he growled.

"So?"

Before he could answer, the bomber and Yoku entered the room, fingers entwined. How freaking unfair could you get? Yoku was with her stalkee already while Itachi-kun practically ignored me! I sighed and tried ignoring Hidan as he yelled at the couple, but they ignored him and fell down in front of the sofa sideways facing the TV and sort of facing me. I ran my fingers through my loose fringe.

"The fuck?!" the Jashinist yelled, "The Leader will eat your face for dinner if he finds out that you let her out of the base, that's why!"

"We're allowed out of the base if we're escorted by someone, you sacrifice-mad prick," I told him irritably to try and get him to shut up, but it failed. I just wanted a little peace and quiet.

I nearly started whining as the argument continued, only looking up when Tobi's voice rang through the hallway, "Yoku-chaaaaan! Where have you gone?"

"She's in the sitting room, you blithering idiot!" I yelled at him, and in an instant he was in the room with us, fussing over Yoku.

Just when Deidara was about to blow him up for a reason I didn't catch—because I didn't really care—he ran from the room and Yoku looked at the blonde in a way I wished Itachi-kun would look at me, if only once. I pulled a face in disgust at the unfairness of the situation.

"Yoku, take your boyfriend and hold your romance elsewhere," I said irritably. I couldn't bear to see them so lovingly with each other while I sat here like some lonely loser, "You're annoying me."

"I will blast you to hell if you say one more word, Naresome, un," Deidara said, glaring at me.

"Why don't you start minding your own business?" I snapped.

"Fuck this shit," Hidan said, and left the room. Kakuzu soon followed. Itachi-kun wasn't roused. In fact, he looked like he was sleeping with open eyes.

"It is my business if you talk to her like that, un," Deidara replied.

"Yeah, because you really care about her," I said sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean, un?" he asked angrily, "I care about her."

"Yeah, because she gives you all the pleasure you desire, doesn't she? She doesn't even want to talk to you!"

I regretted it as soon as the words left my lips. Before I could hold a hand to my mouth, Yoku looked up at me for the first time, and I felt my heart fall about fifty miles through the ground. Her eyes were glistening with tears, and her lower lip was trembling. Without warning, she flew up and made to leave the room. Both Deidara and I followed and tried stopping her.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, flinching away from both of our touches as though we had burned her before breaking into a run and disappearing through the darkness of the corridor.

I glared angrily at Deidara and tried punching him in the face, but he effortlessly dodged my punch and slapped me in the face with a force that sent me falling to the floor.

"Now look at what you did, un," he said irritably before following her.

'I am not weak', I told myself forcibly, fighting the tears that formed at the corners of my eyes. When I got back up, I flinched when I saw Itachi-kun staring at me expressionlessly. Growling with anger, I ran from the room and went to mine, glad and even angrier at the same time when Yoku wasn't inside.

I flicked the light on, shut the curtains angrily and fell down on my bed, letting the tears fall as soon as my face hit the pillow, clutching at my burning cheek.

What had I done?

I was angry with myself and Itachi-kun because we weren't together—not that it was anyone's fault, which only made it worse because there was no one to blame—and I was irritated beyond question because he kept telling me I was weak, and because Yoku could walk on water and I couldn't, and because I couldn't even do a basic fire technique like Phoenix Fire.

I was jealous of my best friend. I wanted to slap myself for admitting it, but it was the truth. She was evidently a lot better than me with her chakra, and for all I knew she could be a lot better than me in combat, too. She was with the guy of her dreams already while I stared at Itachi-kun for hours on end, trying to pick up even a hint of a sign of feeling, but never saw any.

I gasped in fright when I heard a knock on the door. I turned over and sat up, hurriedly wiped the tears from my eyes, hoping it was enough, before calling, "Come in."

I nearly turned to jelly when I saw the raven hair and scarlet eyes that belonged to my favourite Uchiha.

"What do you want?" I asked irritably, glad when my voice didn't tremble too much.

"You seemed upset," he said, closing the door and sitting down at the foot of my bed.

"No shit, Sherlock," I said irritably.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he asked, "About what's bothering you so much that you could not even hold your tongue?"

"Way to put that," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes, "Why would you even listen if I told you? You hate me."

"What gave you that impression?"

"Uhm, gee, I don't know," I said sarcastically, mocking thoughtfulnes, "Maybe the fact that you tell me on a daily basis that you're not my friend, that you're not impressed with my progress and that I'm weak."

While I had been speaking, a fresh wave of tears rolled down my cheeks in spite of myself.

"I told you that in the hopes that you would work your hardest in proving me wrong," he said simply, "When I saw that you actually started sleeping less and focusing your everything on the training, I saw that it was the best method. I apologize if it hurt your feelings."

"The great Uchiha Itachi-kun, apologizing to a weakling like me," I said, chuckling in spite of my tears.

"You are not weak, Naresome Yume," he said, and my heart couldn't help but flutter at him saying my full name.

I looked down at my hands and felt the weight on the mattress shift, and I flinched with surprise when he sat down directly in front of me, our legs touching, his face mere inches from mine. If I wanted to, I could press my lips to his in less than a second, but I didn't want to ruin the moment. I found that I couldn't keep his gaze long, and I looked back down at my hands.

"Tell me what is bothering you. I might not have advice, but I can listen. It might help."

"I just—I feel bad … about everything," I said. When he didn't reply, I continued, and before I knew it everything just tumbled out of my mouth as though he had pressed a button that had been on my forehead labelled Information Please.

I told him about the fact that I was thoroughly sick of having to translate everything Yoku needed said, but that I would do it to the end of time if it helped express how much I loved her. I admitted to him that I wouldn't have been able to live without her, and that I wanted to slap myself a thousand times over for hurting her. I didn't even want to hurt Deidara like that; I had just been fed up with not making enough progress with my training, and I had been tired from not getting enough sleep and the hurtful words had tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.

I ended up admitting things to myself, as well, like how I have come to love everyone in Akatsuki in a way I could never love anyone except Yoku before. Even my other friends back home had never understood me. My family pushed me in directions I never wanted to go in, and I barely had any freedom.

Soon my words were so mixed with sobs that not even I could make them out anymore, but Itachi-kun never said anything. When I finished I buried my face in my hands, not able to continue any more.

Itachi-kun pressed only the tips of his fingers to my jaw to make me look at him. When I refused, he slowly ran his fingers over my burning cheek, through my hair until he was cupping the back of my head, and pulled me to him. Not having any reason whatsoever to resist, I fell onto his chest, clutching onto his cloak, and cried into his shoulder, not remembering when I fell asleep and not particularly caring.

Damn, even I wanted to cry when I was busy with this. –sob sob- hope it was all right, and the OOC'ness didn't bother too much ^ ^


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** The chapter starts right after Yoku had flinched away from Deidara's and Yume-chan's touches, for those who get confused easily.

**Chapter 7 – Yoku's Story**

Yoku's POV.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed, pulling away before either Yume-chan or Deidara could touch me.

I ran from the sitting room, trying to run from my tears themselves, having absolutely no idea where I was going.

How could Yume-chan say something like that? No matter how hard I tried, this time I could find no reason behind her rudeness. Was she trying to break Deidara and me up just because she wasn't with Itachi? Was she jealous of me? If so, I never thought her to be this kind of person. She was always the strong one, defending others and keeping her cool, no matter how difficult things got.

And how could Deidara-kun threaten to blow her up? He must have known it would upset me. I came to a stop when my crying got so bad I began fearing what might happen if someone was asleep and I woke them, surprised when I found myself in a completely unfamiliar corridor.

It was completely empty except for the windows, and a window-seat long enough for me to lay on stood at the window directly in front of me. After looking this way and that and listening intently, trying to see if there was anyone nearby, I sat down on the cushiony seat, pulling my legs up and hugging them, resting my chin on my knees as tears streamed mercilessly down my face.

I felt so weak and helpless. I wasn't even able to talk properly to someone I knew I loved. Yume-chan was so mean in saying that I didn't _want _to—that wasn't the case. I've tried numerous times to try and make conversation with Deidara-kun, but my voice failed me. She knew it wasn't my fault. She had heard the whole story, and she was the only one to have had the privilage, so why would she throw a trust like that in my face?

"Why?!" I cried to myself, digging my nails into the flesh of my shins to stop myself from punching the glass of the window to pieces.

"Yoku-chan?"

I looked around to see the orange-masked boy standing a few feet from me, and I felt the lump in my throat return. I hurriedly wiped tears from my cheeks.

"Why are you crying, Yoku-chan?" Tobi asked sadly, taking a few steps forward. I looked away, not even trying to get past the lump in my throat. "Did Deidara-senpai hurt you?" I whipped my head back to face him, shaking my head vigorously. Why would he think Deidara-kun would hurt me? He seemed to understand my confusion and said, "He looks really angry, Yoku-chan. I didn't want to bother him, so I came looking for you instead. Should I lead him away from here?" I shook my head. "Should I tell him where you are?" he asked. I thought for a moment and slowly nodded.

I watched as the boy turned and walked away. He was such a good guy. I wondered what he was doing with an organization like Akatsuki …

Barely ten minutes passed when Tobi arrived again, "I can't find Deidara-senpai, Yoku-chan," he said, out of breath, "I looked everywhere."

Anger flared inside me and I felt my ears and tail appear. Ingoring the lump in my throat, I angrily punched the window beside me, watching it shatter. When I pulled my arm back, I left half the flesh of my hand behind, as well. Yelling in anger and pain, I began running again.

Before I knew it, I felt the cool breeze of the outside air. Pein could kill me if he wanted; I didn't care. I wasn't going to stay prisoner in that hell-hole any longer.

Tears streaming down my face, I ran without direction, nearly falling every time I regained my balance. Before I knew it I broke free of the forest and fell down at the edge of the lake against the bark of a willow tree.

Sniffling and struggling a little to breathe, I tried to make sense of my surroundings past the blurring of my tears.

I was on the exact spot I had sat that afternoon, when Deidara-kun had first held my hand while we were watching the sunset. I clenched my burning hand and started pulling the shards of glass from my flesh. When I couldn't get any more glass out because the shards were too small, anger flared inside me once more, and I started pacing up and down on the grass.

The moonlight was so bright tonight. It was a full moon, my favourite. How ironic. I sighed and stood still, holding my hand up to moonlight, wondering whether it would work. Holding my uninjured hand in a seal for concentration, I molded chakra and focused it in my hand before releasing it all at once. I yelled in pain as the tiny shards of glass were shot into the air along with a few pieces of flesh.

Sniffling and ignoring the pain, I molded more chakra, performed the necessary seals, released a steady flow of chakra and muttered, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu."

The water from the lake flew towards me and impersonated me in four Clones. My Clones and I glared at each other for a moment before I yelled in anger and punched one of them, making it turn to water once more.

"SHE ALWAYS RUINS EVERYTHING!" I yelled at my Clones, continuing my pacing, "She just spreads lies everywhere and everyone just picks them up! She thinks she's doing good but she ALWAYS JUST MAKES THINGS WORSE!"

I punched another Clone and screamed in pain. How clever of me to have used my left hand to punch the window; it was the hand I relied on most. The Clone turned to water once more, and now there were only two left.

"Maybe she's just tired," one of the Clones said, "Why don't we go talk to her?"

"I DON'T CARE IF SHE'S JUST TIRED!" I yelled, "She had no right to say those things! She basically told me I was a slut, going all 'yeah, I bet she gives you loads of pleasure'!"

"Maybe she was being sarcastic-"

"I DON'T CARE!" I yelled, punching the Clone full in the face with my right hand. Now there was only one left, "Dei-kun thinks I hate him! He thinks I don't _want _to talk to him! I'M TRYING! No matter what I do, nothing ever goes right! I'm just as useless as a fish on the deck of a ship, which means you're also useless!"

I punched the last Clone and watched as it turned back to water. The soles of my shoes were wet, and I moved back to the willow tree, panting and staring at the spot where I had sat before and decided against sitting down.

"I'M NOT WEAK!" I screamed, punching the tree with my right hand.

Before I knew it I was kicking and punching the tree so that the bark started chipping off. My knuckles, knees and the bridges of my feet were all bleeding mercilessly by the time I started feeling dizzy, and I fell down on all-fours.

"Dammit, I lost too much blood," I panted. After a few more deep breaths darkness consumed me.

What felt like minutes later I felt someone gently shaking my shoulder, calling my name. It sounded very distant, and when I opened my eyes slightly I saw nothing but a blur of yellow, red and black.

"Yoku-san, please wake up, un …"

I tried swallowing the lump that was forming in my throat again, and balled my hands into fists, wincing with pain and shifting with discomfort when I felt that bandages were wrapped around my knuckles. I closed my eyes again. My head was spinning and my whole body ached. I shifted my legs and, as I thought, there were bandages on my knees and feet, as well. I couldn't feel my shoes. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Deidara-kun leaning over me, illuminated by the bright moonlight.

"Dei-kun …" I breathed.

"You're finally awake," he said, happiness clear in his voice, "After you passed out I fetched Kakuzu-san, and he fixed you up. It's been two hours, un."

_After you passed out_, he'd said. Suddenly, all the anger from earlier returned, and I felt my body starting to tremble and I clenched my fists tighter.

"Yoku-san, un?"

"Leave me alone," I said, shoving him out of my way and sitting up. I saw stars for a moment before I stood up, ignoring my dizziness, and walked over to the lake. I looked sideways at the tree, surprised when there was barely any bark left.

"Yoku-san?"

I turned around to face Deidara-kun. I couldn't identify his expression. It was somewhere between confusion, sadness, surprise and anger. I angrily tried swallowing the lump in my throat, but to no avail.

"Why would you hurt yourself like that, un?"

"W-what would y-you know?" I stuttered angrily, "Y-you're just l-like the rest o-of them. Th-the only r-reason you even t-talk to m-me is b-because I seem cute b-because I w-won't talk easily."

"Why would you think that?" he asked, seemingly surprised, "You think I'm just using you, un?"

My ears and tail appeared again, and I was sure Deidara-kun knew it wasn't from embarrassment. I finally swallowed the lump and managed to say without stuttering, "You hate me, don't you? Yume-chan always ruins every chance of happiness I might get. Why don't you all go to hell and leave me alone?"

I ran my fingers through my hair and turned back to face the lake, hoping he would just do as I told him and go away. I didn't want to talk to him; I didn't want to have it difficult any more.

"You told me that I'll hear your story. If I go to hell and leave you alone, I won't ever hear it, un."

I stared at him in exasperation and held up my bandaged hands, "Don't you see this? How could you want to even be in the presence of someone who does this?"

"I want to know the reason, un."

Before I could answer, he took the few steps seperating us and softly took my hands in his, careful not to touch my wounds. Our faces were inches apart, and I turned my head to look the other way. He pulled my arms behind his back before running his fingers through my hair and holding me to his chest in a soft embrace.

Before I could stop it a fresh wave of tears rolled down my cheeks. I buried my face in the folds of his cloak so that only my mouth was free, and clutched tightly on to the cloth on his back.

"When I was a kid, my father died," I started, glad the lump was gone, "He had partnered with a person he barely knew and started a business. After making a fortune one month, the man disappeared with all the money, and my father set out to find him. He never came back … my little brother made a friend, but we only ever met the boy's father once. When my brother went over to visit them once, he never came back. After that, after I had lost two family members to grown men I didn't know, I couldn't talk to adult men I didn't know anymore.

"I saw a therapist for more than a month, every day, trying to overcome that fear, but they could never figure me out. My mother got a new job and one of her new colleagues offered to give her a ride. I saw the woman's face, and I told my mother I didn't have a good feeling about her going off with someone she didn't even know, but she blew me off. She never came back. After that I couldn't talk to adult women any more, either.

"I went to live with my grandfather, as he was the family member who lived the nearest to me. One day, he was asleep, and the doorbell rang. It was a man and a boy my age who wanted something from my grandfather, but I didn't know what they were talking about and I had no way of telling them that. The boy tried to shoot me with a gun, but my grandfather jumped in front of me. They emptied his house of money before leaving me. After than I couldn't talk to boys anymore, either.

"I moved to my aunt and uncle's house on the other side of the country, and had to start over. Instead of having boys for friends, like I always have, I had to make do with girls because of my problem. I didn't fit in anywhere, until I met Yume-chan. She introduced me to the rest of her friends and she became my personal translator.

"All of that had happened in the time space of a year. By this time I was in sixth grade. Two years passed and a series of things ensured that I couldn't talk to boys or adults: men and women alike broke in to our house or sometimes even the houses of the friends I stayed with overnight, teachers picked on me, the boys teased me and it even became difficult to talk to girls because they started picking on me as well. I put up with Yume-chan's obnoxiousness because she helped me through most of my problems and joined me in all the fights I started. She understood me like no one else could, even if they tried.

"We had just started with high school, and by this time I had seen at least fifteen therapists, who each told me it wasn't good to hurt others, so I started hurting myself instead. When I got angry, I would slit my wrists or punch whatever was near me until the skin was gone and the bones started showing. No one wanted to come near me.

"One of the girls in my class started bullying me whenever Yume-chan wasn't near. I couldn't fight her, because she took self-defense lessons. She stole my food, punched me in ways that it didn't leave marks but it still hurt and spread untrue rumours about me. I couldn't talk to anyone anymore unless I had met them before my problem started, or if I knew them and I knew they wouldn't hurt me."

Throughout my entire speech, my tears didn't stop forming and rolling down my cheeks even though my face didn't screw up and my voice didn't tremble.

"Thank you for telling me that, un," Deidara-kun said, kissing my head, "I went to your room earlier. Itachi-san was with Naresome, and she was asleep in his arms, but her eyes were red and puffy and wet, un. Itachi-san told me that she had told him that she never meant to hurt you. She was just angry with herself, and very tired. Even Itachi-san begged me to make you forgive her, un."

I nodded into his chest.

"Yoku-san—no, Yoku-chan—I have a confession, un," he said softly. My breath caught.

"Wh-what is it?" I asked, angry when the lump in my throat returned. Honestly? I had managed to tell Deidara-kun my whole story, and now the thing returned again?

Instead of immediately answering, he pulled away. I didn't want to be seperated from him, but he just softly placed his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes so intensely I felt like melting. Just when I was about to look away he spoke.

"I apologize for being so rude when we first met, un," he said, surprising me, "And for waking you up in such an annoying manner each morning. I also apologize for not arriving earlier so I could stop you from hurting yourself like this. I would have let you hurt me instead, if it would've helped, un."

"You don't have to-"

"I want you to know that I will never let you hurt yourself again, un," he continued deliberately, "Even if I have to force you to, you're going to hurt me instead starting right now. If I ever see you hurting yourself again, I'm going to blow up pieces of my skin one my one-"

"D-Dei-kun, please don't-"

"Furthermore," he continued, "Will you be mine, un?"

I felt my muscles stiffen and my wolf ears prickle in surprise, "I—I—what?"

"Your touch sets my mind spinning, and I get lost in your eyes every single day," he said, "I have several clay statues of you in my room that I've been meaning to give to you, but I want them to be perfect, un. I don't know if you feel the same, so I have to know—will you be mine, un?"

I stared at him for a few more moments, lost in his gaze, surprised into paralysis. The lump in my throat suddenly disappeared. "Yes," I finally said, a smile tugging at my lips.

His uncertain expression broke into one of utter joy, and he cupped my cheek in his palm (his handmouth closed, luckily), and pressed his lips softly to mine. It was a long kiss, and I felt myself melting into his hold when he let go.

"I have conditions, though," I said with a smirk, and he frowned slightly, "Under no circumstances are you allowed to kiss me with those," I pointed to his hands, "And you're not allowed to blow Yume-chan or me up."

"I agree to the first, but I'm not so sure about the second one," he said, mocking thoughtfulness. I glared at him. "I can't guarantee that I won't blow Naresome up, un."

I silently glared at him until he finally smiled, indicating that he wasn't serious, before I said, "And please don't blow clay spiders up over my head anymore. I don't care if you do it to Yume-chan: it's funny to see her throwing fits like that."

He smiled warmly before kissing me once more and he shifted his arm. I heard something like a soft explosion behind me and turned my head to see a giant clay bird like the one we had ridden on earlier. I silently let him guide me to the bird, and we went back to the base.

After bidding Deidara-kun goodnight with a brief kiss, I returned to my room with a smile, freezing with surprise when I saw Yume-chan in Itachi's arms.

"Yoku-san," he said, and in a flash he was standing beside the bed.

"You didn't have to do that," I snorted.

"It would have been inappropriate and especially uncomfortable in the morning," he said.

"Why don't you at least have her wake up with a red rose on her pillow?" I said, rolling my eyes. He nodded once and disappeared with a quick-to-disperse puff of smoke.

'Finally', I thought, 'Things are working out … except for my wounds. Now I'll have to wait who-knows-how-long before I can train again.'


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** So sorry there ended up being so many chapters, but every time I want to actually continue with the story I get another idea and it ends up getting squeezed in. Hopefully it isn't too boring ^ ^

**Chapter 8 – Fight With The Master**

My eyes flew open in shock as I felt lips being pressed to mine, but immediately relaxed and closed my eyes again when all I saw was a wave of blonde hair and a Rock forehead protector, and ran my fingers through Deidara-kun's hair.

When he finally pulled away, he smiled down at me for a moment, "Good morning, un."

"Morning," I said. He stared for a moment more before pointedly looking sideways. I followed his gaze and smiled when I saw Yume-chan limply clutching a blood red rose. I looked at the doorway, which was empty.

"Where's Tobi?" I asked softly.

"He didn't feel like listening to Naresome yelling again, and he doesn't like it when you're sad, un," he replied.

"Please call her Yume," I said, "And when you see him again tell him I'm sorry for freaking out last night."

He nods once and kissed me again. I glanced sideways at Yume-chan's sleeping form.

"Wake her up," I whispered with a grin. He grinned as well and reached into the bag strapped to his side, and his hand emerged seconds later with three fingernail-sized clay birds, which flew until they were about two feet above her face.

"Katsu," he said calmly, and the birds exploded with a noise that would've woken the whole building up.

Yume-chan woke up with something between a gasp and a yell and began swearing and cussing and cursing Deidara-kun, throwing rude hand signs in the process until she finally set eyes on me. I was laughing my head off.

"WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU LAUGHING AT, DAMN IT?!" she yelled.

"You should've seen your face!" I said through laughing fits, and she froze.

"You're talking in front of Faggot-Face," she said simply.

"Don't call him that," I said sternly.

"Ahh, I see," she said knowingly, then her face twisted into suspicion, "What were you two doing before I woke up?"

Deidara-kun sighed, "If we were doing anything worth mentioning, why would I have woken you up, un?"

"Good point," she said, "Now get out."

"Oi!" I said, glaring at her, "This is my room, too."

"Then both of you, get out."

I stuck my tongue out at her before looking at the clock on my bedside cabinet. It was nearly noon. "Is Kisame-san back yet?"

"No," he replied, "He and Itachi-san are out on a mission. They won't be back for two weeks or so."

"That'll give me some time to heal again," I said.

"Heal?" Yume-chan asked, "What do you mean?"

Deidara-kun glanced at me, and I lightly shook my head before looking at her again, "I'll tell you later. Anyway, we'll be down for breakfast in a minute."

He nodded and kissed me once before leaving, and I told Yume-chan about the previous night's events, and she looked at me dejectedly. At her request, I showed her my bandaged left forearm, knuckles, knees and the bridges of my feet.

"It's all my fault," she said, "I'm so sorry. If I didn't say those things, none of this would've happened."

"Oh, cut that out," I snapped, "You don't have to blame yourself every time I get hurt, you know. I know you have a bit of a foul mouth when you're tired, so I'm sorry for overreacting. Just try and get some proper sleep, yeah?"

She nodded and smiled, and we got dressed and went down for breakfast. Kakuzu handed me a pair of crutches without a word when he saw me limping with one arm around Yume-chan's neck, while all the others looked at me with wide eyes.

"Did you try to catch a fucking Bijuu single-handedly or something?" Hidan asked.

"No," Yume chuckled, "She—uhm—fell down the stairs."

A few days later, with Kakuzu's help, all my wounds were fully healed, but he couldn't do much about the scars. I now had ugly marks on my knuckles where the bone had poked through, and my forearm was full of scars where the glass had cut me.

For the following few weeks, I trained with any Akatsuki member who was at the base except Deidara-kun and Tobi; I couldn't bring myself to try and hurt them. I still couldn't talk in front of half the Akatsuki; the only ones I didn't stutter in front of was Deidara-kun, Tobi and Kakuzu. Finally, after a lot of waiting, Kisame and Itachi returned during dinner.

"Look who decided to show up!" Hidan exclaimed, "Fucking finally!"

"Hn," was all Itachi said, and a wave of irritation shot through me when he didn't even greet Yume-chan. Of course, I couldn't point it out.

"You two ready for your training?" Kisame asked. I nodded.

"Yeah," Yume-chan said, "We're gonna kick your asses. Yoku's on equal ground with Konan, and I can almost counter Kakuzu."

"Almost," Hidan chuckled.

"Oi, we kicked your ass in, like, four days," Yume snapped.

"That's because he's the slowest one here," Kakuzu said, causing a few people to chuckle and Hidan to throw out a series of cuss words.

"So, what's this?" Kisame asked with a grin, looking at mine and Deidara-kun's entwined fingers. I flinched at being addressed directly.

"They've been together since you guys left," Hidan said, "They can't keep their fucking hands off each other."

"Don't lie," Deidara-kun said, "You're just jealous."

"Terribly," Yume-chan said sarcastically, and I glared at her, causing her to chuckle.

"You're still not talking, huh?" Kisame asked me, and I shook my head shyly. I just needed a little time to get used to him again.

"She's talking in front of Faggot-Face, Tobi and Kakuzu, though," Yume-chan said, "It's a mental thing she has. She needs to be absolutely certain the person won't hurt her before she can talk to them."

"I didn't know that," Konan said thoughtfully.

"So, what?" Hidan asked me irritably, "You're fucking scared of us?"

I clicked my tongue irritably and shook my head, glaring at Yume-chan, who said, "She's not _scared_, per se. It's 'cause she trains with you guys, and obviously you'll try to hurt her enough so she'll withdraw from the spar. Like I said, it's a mental thing."

"Fuck that, it's too confusing," Hidan said, shaking his head.

"Will we be learning new techniques?" Yume asked, then glared at Itachi, "I can perform enough Phoenix Fire to blast your ass to hell."

"We'll see," he said calmly.

"We won't actually be training together," Kisame said, "You'll see tomorrow morning. Be at the lake at ten."

"Ugh, you never let us sleep in," Yume said.

Deidara-kun woke me up, as always, with a kiss, before opening the curtains for Yume-chan to wake up. When she didn't, he let a few tiny birds explode over her head, and she woke up groggily.

"Why're you so dispirited?" I asked.

"Stayed up late last night—uhm—reading," she said.

"You were stalking Itachi, weren't you?" I asked dejectedly. She just glared at me silently.

Little less than an hour later, Yume-chan and I went to the lake with Deidara-kun and Tobi as our escorts, my dual-bladed sword in one hand, and Yume's scythe strapped to her back.

"Aahh, I can't wait to see what Itachi-san and Kisame-san are planning!" Tobi said excitedly.

"I hope it's something easy," Yume-chan said as we broke through the trees and saw Itachi and Kisame standing side by side in front of the lake. Deidara-kun gave me a brief kiss before he and Tobi backed away, sitting on the grass. "So, why are we here together?"

"Just to see what the two of you have learned so far," Itachi said simply.

I still didn't like his voice: it was so deep and intimidating, and I found myself pretending to be Yume-chan's shadow again.

"That really won't do anymore," he continued, glaring right at me, "Stand beside Yume."

"Just leave her alone," Yume-chan said calmly.

"If you want to be a part of Akatsuki, you can't be cute and shy anymore," Itachi snapped.

"Tell him that I won't have to talk if I kill someone," I whispered irritably in Yume's ear, and she relayed the message.

"Yes, but what if you're sent out on an information gathering mission? How will you manage that?" he asked irritably.

"I'll drag you along," I whispered to Yume-chan.

"I won't let her go on a mission alone," Yume-chan said, "If the Leader decides we're ready to join, the two of us can be partners. There would be no problem."

"Step out from behind Yume-san," Itachi said dangerously, and I found myself flinching, "Come, come, we don't have all day."

"I told you to leave her the hell alone," Yume-chan said, just as dangerously. I sighed and forced myself to stand beside her. There wasn't any need for a fight. She glanced at me, but I just forced a smile. "What're you gonna teach us?"

"Before we teach you anything, we want to see what you're capable of," Kisame-san said lightly, "Surely you trained while we were gone?"

"Don't underestimate us," she replied with a smirk.

"Good," he said, "You'll be fighting me. Yoku-san will be fighting Itachi."

Say what?

"Why?" Yume asked, seemingly just as confused as I was. After a moment's silence, I nodded with understanding.

"It seems you know the answer," Itachi said, making me flinch, "Why don't you say it out loud?"

"Itachi, I swear to Jashin, I will rip you apart if you continue pestering her," Yume said irritably.

"It might be good if she answers, though," Kisame said, then he pointedly stared at me, "We won't hurt you."

I frowned as the lump in my throat lifted somewhat. With another gulp, I was able to hurriedly say, "You know my basic fighting style, and Itachi-san knows Yume-chan's, and therefore you won't really be able to determine our strengths, so you swapped."

"Excellent," Kisame said with a grin, "Correct."

"Come, come, we don't have all day," Itachi said and, without warning, he rushed forward so that I barely had time to lift my dual-bladed sword to parry his attack. Before Yume-chan had time to take a snap at him, Kisame attacked her, as well.

I put as much strength as possible into a hit and evaded behind a tree, hurriedly molding chakra and whispering, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu," so that fifteen Clones appeared and surrounded me. I had taken care to give an even amount of chakra to each of them so as to conceal my presence. As one, they walked past me so that they masked my presence and stood before where I had left Itachi.

"Come out from behind the tree," I heard his deep voice say clearly, while my surroundings heated up considerably and Kisame and Yume's battle raged on noisily.

I refused to step out from my shelter and instead went to another at the same time as when I sent my Clones to attack Itachi.

Damn it, why had I not asked Kisame to teach me more techniques? My melee combat sucked ass, and Itachi's Sharingan could see me too easily. I rubbed my temples, trying to come up with some kind of plan. I knew I wouldn't be able to defeat Itachi—not in a million years—but I had to try my best.

I knew it would be no use to try and not look into his eyes while fighting, because he uses his hands to trap people in a hallucination, as well. Once I was caught in a hallucination, there would be no escaping, and I would lose in any case.

His chakra element was fire, and mine was water, but that still didn't help me much, seeing as the only technique I knew was now failing so badly against him. I nearly cried out in frustration, but clutched onto my sword tightly to prevent myself from doing so.

"Still hiding?"

I put my sword up just in time to parry a blow to the face, and jumped from where I had been standing and onto the branch of a tree. I swung the sword wildly, hoping to land a hit while I tried coming up with a strategy.

I tried thinking of everything that might help me against him: his tone, fighting style, any weapons or objects he was carrying … I could see no flaws in the way he attacked me. There were absolutely no patterns. I knew he was a Genjutsu-type person, so why has he not trapped me yet? From what I could see, he carried no objects of significance, his tone was always calm, and he never betrayed any information about himself.

Damn it. How was I supposed to fight against someone like this?

I transformed one of my Clones into a dual-bladed sword matching mine, and fought wildly, anger blinding me when I realized what a weak match I was. I felt my ears and tail appear, and surprise engulfed me when I felt a sharp pain on the insides of my mouth. My canines had grown slightly and were now just as sharp as my blades, and they were tearing at the insides of my mouth.

"That's enough, un!"

I gasped as I was pushed roughly to the ground. My Clone-sword disappeared along with my wolfy effects. After taking a few deep breaths, I realized that it was Deidara-kun who had cried out, and he was pinning me to the ground, a look of concern etched on his face.

"Yoku-chan, are you alright?" Tobi asked from somewhere behind Deidara-kun.

"D-Dei-kun?" I stuttered, wincing at the pain in my mouth. I tasted blood.

"What's wrong?" Yume-chan's voice asked from Deidara-kun's side, and she appeared within my vision, "What happened?"

"Her temper got the best of her," Itachi said carelessly, walking away.

"What did he mean?" I asked Deidara-kun, sitting up, "Why did you interfere?"

"You were going to hurt yourself," he replied, "I told you, I'm not going to allow that anymore, un."

"Yoku-chan, you shouldn't get so angry," Tobi said. I rolled my eyes irritably and got up.

"We're not continuing the fight," Itachi said when he rested his eyes on my hand tightly clutching the hilt of my sword, "We've learned enough."

"I want a rematch," I growled angrily, freezing when I realized what I had done, and widening my eyes when a wolf-like growl escaped along with my voice.

"You are weak," Itachi said from a little way away, "I have no time to spare for weaklings."

I shoved Deidara-kun angrily out of my way, and then Tobi, but before I could grab Itachi's shoulder and turn him around, he did so by himself and slapped me on the cheek.

"I have no time to spare for weaklings," he repeated while I clutched my burning cheek, "You are a hundred years too young to be trying to touch me without my permission."

I watched as he disappeared and reappeared beside Yume-chan and, after grabbing her hand roughly, disappeared along with her.

"I'm going now," Kisame said, "Yoku, meet me at the usual time and place."

I knew he meant the room with the pool at noon. I didn't even react when Deidara-kun pointedly glared at Tobi, who followed Kisame back to the base. I glared sideways at the tree beside me and pulled back my arm, releasing all the force I could muster.

I gasped when my knuckles connected, not with bark, but with Deidara-kun's face. I heard a faint _crack _when his face roughly snapped to the side before he looked back at me. He relocated his jaw with another faint _crack_.

"Why would you do that?!" I cried.

"I told you I won't let you hurt yourself anymore, un," he replied simply. He cupped my burning cheek and kissed me once before holding me tightly to him, "Don't let Itachi-san's words get to you. He means well. You're very strong, and he knows it, un."

"Strong, my ass," I argued, "I could barely get near him, leastways try to hurt him."

"Your strength doesn't lie in melee combat: it lies in chakra control and strategising," he said, "Yume-san only used techniques left and right, swinging her scythe blindly, not even bothering to try and come up with an idea. You, on the other hand, did splendidly."

That night I woke up, as I had hoped, little after midnight. I had remembered the words Deidara-kun had told me the afternooon we had seen that beautiful sunset: _The Village of Konoha is not far from the other side of those mountains_.

I was going to ask Sakura to make me a medical nin. They specialise in blocking attacks and perfecting their chakra, which was nearly all I needed to at least evade Itachi.

**A/N: **I apologize if this was a bit boring: I had major writer's block because school just started and my brain is super tired =.=ll


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **My story is my own and will hold my own chain of events accordingly. Stuff here doesn't happen as they do in the episodes, so, yeah, LOL … enjoy.

**Chapter 9 – Looking For Trouble**

I didn't really go to Konoha the previous night. I had only packed an emergency kit in case I wanted to go there quickly. I first wanted to know more: did the base have alarm systems around to signal if someone entered or exited? When will Yume-chan and I be sent out on missions? What would my punishment be if it was made known that I snuck out to Konoha?

I was awfully uneasy all through the following few days. Kisame-sensei (Itachi instructed me to start calling him this, and as I had no objection to it, I learned quickly) was teaching me to hide my Chakra signature. but no matter how hard I tried, I could barely concentrate on anything he, or anyone else, said to me. He said I was supposed to have mastered it after two days, but I could only perfect it after a week. Deidara-kun became somewhat irritated because I didn't talk to him, but I didn't care. My priority at the moment was finding a way in which to go to Konoha without anyone noticing what I was up to. I couldn't go late at night because several of the Akatsuki members went on missions then, and it would look too suspicious.

My opportunity arises little more than a week after my fight with Itachi-san. He and Kisame-sensei had been asked to go to Konoha to fetch Naruto.

"Kisame-sensei!" I call to him when I see him walking in one of the corridors at around 10 o'clock in the morning. "Kisame-sensei, wait up!"

"What is it? I'm in a hurry," he says.

How am I supposed to say this? I think in panic. I need the perfect words to justify why I want to go to the Hidden Village holding some of the missing nins' worst enemies.

"Canigokonohawiyu?" I blurt, regretting it immediately. My wolf ears and tail appear and I look down at Kisame-sensei's shoes.

"Yoku, I am in a hurry-"

"Can I pretty, pretty, pretty please go to Konoha with you and Itachi-san? I'll be good, I swear! I've always so longed to go there and meet Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi-kun and all the others! I swear I won't actually tell them who I am! And I won't betray any kind of information about the organization or any of its inhabitants in any kind of way! I just want to-"

"No," Itachi-san says shortly, suddenly emerging from behind a wall. I stop in shock, the familiar and non-helpful lump jumping up to my throat and blocking my voice.

I look pleadingly at Kisame-sensei. Surely he would see sense. Surely he would be assured that I won't break my word. After all, he knows I'm an awful liar. He found that out long ago, after I repeatedly tried to keep full that no, I'm not hungry and no, I'm not tired and of course, I'll practice my chakra control even throughout the night. Surely-

"You can't come, Yoku," Kisame-sensei says.

WHY? I wail inside my mind. I look more pleadingly at him.

"It's too dangerous," he says, "I'm sorry, but you'll just be a liability. Konoha shinobi are skilled. We can't be distracted with your safety while fighting them."

I angrily fling my right hand at Itachi-san to try and chase him away, so that I can explain to Kisame-sensei that I'll only hang out with the kids and meet Neji and Hinata and the other Genin, that the identity of the organization will be safe. The mission won't be endangered in any way. But Itachi-san appears before me in a flash. I double back in shock as he pushes his fore- and middle-finger into my wrist so that the bone cracks.

"You are not worthy to try and treat me as an equal," he says. "Don't you ever do that again."

Tears welling up in my eyes, I nod silently, my wolf effects prickling with shame, as I clutch my terribly aching hand. I should have known better.

"We'll be back in a few days' time," Kisame-sensei says, ruffling my hair, before he and Itachi-san walks down the corridor, leaving me staring after them until they turned a corner.

"Kakuzu-san?" I say, holding my voice as steady as I could, turning my head round the doorframe of his and Hidan's bedroom several minutes later. He was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.

"Busy," he said simply.

"Should I – shall I wait?"

"Go away."

I nod and turn away. Why is everyone being so bitchy today? I head to Tobi and Deidara's bedroom instead. Their door is closed. I knock three times.

"Dei-kun?"

It's Tobi who opens the door. "Yoku-chan! How are you?"

"I'm good," I lie, "Is Dei-kun here?"

Tobi looks nervously at his shoulder, but then quickly turns back to me. "N-no. Maybe – uhm – maybe he's out training, Yoku-chan."

I know he's lying, so I softly push the door open. Tobi doesn't even try to stop me. Dei-kun is lying on his bed staring at a clay statue in one hand and a sharp knife in the other. I can't see what he was sculpting.

"He's been like this for two days now, Yoku-san," Tobi says, scratching the back of his head, "He doesn't want to come out, or talk to anyone."

I nod and lie down beside Dei-kun, but he refuses to acknowledge that I'm there. I know that he's angry with me because of my recent behaviour. When I try to touch his hand, he pulls away and turns his back on me, sculpting on his side. I see that he's making a gravestone. The word "Tobi" is written on the front. This isn't altogether surprising, seeing as he hates the young boy's energy. I also lie on my side, propping my head up on my elbow, resting my injured right hand on my hip as though nothing is wrong. Something digs sharply into my elbow from underneath the pillow. I reach out and fold my hand around two broken pieces of hardened clay.

I sit upright, lifting them up, and stare at them. It's a gravestone, broken in two. I put the two pices together so that they fit like a jigsaw puzzle, and try to make out the name. What I see hurts me more than anything else had that day.

"M-my gravestone?" I say softly, unable to stop my voice from trembling. Dei-kun freezes beside me and slowly turns around to look at me. I feel tears well up in my eyes again. One of them escapes and runs down my cheek.

"No – Yoku-chan – it's not-"

But I throw the broken sculpture into his face and storm toward the door, but his strong hand wraps around my injured wrist, and it cracks again. This time, I think it breaks. I hide my scream of pain with one of anger.

"Go to hell!" I scream.

"I think that's wear he came from, Yoku-chan," Tobi says timidly from beside his bed.

"Then go back, because it's wear you belong!" I yell, wrenching my wrist from his grasp and running from the room, blocking the doorway with a crowd of my Water Clones. I heard them popping one by one as Dei-kun punched them, but by the time the explosion of one of his clay figures sounded, I am on the upper floor, slamming the door of my bedroom.

"Why don't you slam it a little harder?" Yume-chan calls sarcastically from the bathroom.

I take a deep breath, and another, and then call, "Sorry."

I grab the bag I had packed that night, strap my dual-bladed sword over my shoulder and the bag with kunai and shuriken to my left thigh and open the windows, struggling with all of this because of the throbbing pain in my wrist. Our room is on the third floor. If I focus chakra in my feet, the land won't be too painful. I hear the toilet flushing and, realising that Yume-chan would appear within moments and see me, I impulsively focus chakra in the soles of my feet and jump.

I've always hated heights, and falling from one this high makes me want to vomit when I reached the ground, but I manage to keep myself steady. Without waiting, I run into the trees. Focusing more chakra in my feet and turning it to suction power, I jump onto a nearby tree, run up and onto a branch, and start jumping from branch to branch.

I know Yume-chan would be furious with me if she ever found out where I'm going, but I'm positive she would just blow everything. She's already training her arse off, so she can't afford to waste more time coming with me to Konoha. I'll just be hanging out with the other nin my age. So I won't be any danger to the mission.

I shake my head at myself. I have to focus. This is a mission of my own. I strain to remember what Kisame-sensei taught me about hiding my chakra signature. They can't be too far ahead of me: half an hour or so.

Ironically, hiding chakra uses more than using a basic technique, as it's like creating a shield around yourself AND you have to disguise it. I form the necessary seals and feel the shield form around me. I can't go around being reckless.

I slow my pace. I roughly know where the Village is. Over the mountains that can be seen from the lake where Dei-kun and I ran that one time. Thinking about him hurts, so I stop.

Almost an hour passes before the forest becomes less dense and I finally reach the lake. Suddenly the mountains look much further away. I take a deep breath. I see no movement anywhere, so I solidify the chakra in my feet and start running on the water.

I know, at this rate, that my chakra won't hold long, but I promise my body some rest once I reach the mountains. I can already feel the strain in my lungs when I breathe.

An hour and a half later, when I am panting, drenched in sweat and hungrier than I could ever remember being, I set foot on the very top of the mountain, and look down. Surprise engulfs me, and I try to convince myself that this can't be right.

I'm standing right on one of the Second Hokage's spiky strands of hair. Why would Pein allow them to live so near to the Village? Isn't it a little – no, very – reckless? I know it can't be their only base, but all of them live there at the moment.

I turn my head left and right, but neither of my superiors are anywhere to be seen. Too excited to live up to the promise I made my body, I jump down from rock to rock, my stomach giving a horrible lurch each time.

"Hey, you! You're not allowed to be up there!"

I stop and turn toward the voice. It's a worker standing on the roof of the Hokage's office, the balcony of which he always stands on when he looks out over the Village. I remind myself that he must already be dead.

I smile apologetically and jump down more quickly until I reach the ground. There is a small fountain where a couple of children are playing. I hate children, and I would have backed away in any other situation, but I was hot and tired, so I splashed some of the cool water on my face before drying them on my clothes and taking off, releasing the shield on my chakra and feeling the relief immediately.

I look up at all the signs on the buildings as I walk. There are all kinds of shops, more vast and amazing than I ever imagined. I feel a sharp pain in my right wrist, having forgotten that it was injured in my amazement, and saw that I had walked into a tall, pretty woman.

"Excuse me," she says with a friendly smile, then gives me a questioning look. "I haven't seen you around here before. Are you from around here?"

I shake my head shyly, the lump in my throat preventing speech. She seems confused for a moment, but then smiles again.

"Are you a shinobi?" she asks. I think. Am I? I settle for a 'no', so I shake my head. "Are you lost?" she asks, and I nod. "What are you looking for?"

_Shit_, I think. How am I supposed to get out of this now? I needed this woman's help, but how am I supposed to get it? I decide to pretend I really am mute. I point to my throat and then swipe across it.

"Can't you talk?" she asks, sympathy spreading across her face. I nod. "Can you write?" I nod, with a little exasperation. She rummages in her handbag for a moment and withdraws a small piece of crinkled up paper and a pen, and hands them to me. I thank God that I'm left-handed, and write the word "library", and then listens attentatively as she gives me directions. I press my hands together in front of my chest to show I'm thankful, and run in the direction she pointed. I have no time to waste.

I can't remember all the directions, so it takes some time before I reach the tall building. It's massive on the inside, with tall bookshelves that reach to the ceilings, and a few ladders here and there, a tall table with several chairs between each shelf where a few kids are working. I wonder whether the students from the Ninja Academy has homework.

"Can I help you?" a short, plump woman to my left asks. I realise that she must be the librarian. The lump jumps up to block my voice, and I realise with shame that I'm still holding the tall, pretty woman's pen and piece of paper.

I write: I can't talk. Can you tell me where to find Haruno Sakura?

"Haruno Sakura," the woman says thoughtfully, "That sounds familiar … oh, she's Hokage Tsunade-sama's student, isn't she?" I nod eagerly. "I saw her earlier at the back. She's bound to be here somewhere, dear. Would you like me to help you look?"

I shake my head with a smile, assuring her I'll be fine. She smiles, staring for a moment at my throat with the ghost of a sympathetic look passing over her eyes, before turning away.

It takes several minutes of walking down each shelf, looking for the pink-haired head of the kunoichi I am looking for, and I finally find her, sitting at one of the desks, surrouded by several piles of thick, dusty books. Several other kids are sitting around her. The lump jumped up to my throat, blocking my voice.

_For heaven's sake_, I think. I know she's good-natured and won't hurt me. I almost growl in frustration, but suppress the urge. Instead, I scratch the previous notes I had written on the piece of paper and write on the little space that's left: Hi, my name is Yoku.

I think, trying to come up with something else to write, but there isn't any more space left on the paper to explain exactly why I am here, and I can't think of any short way to explain it, so I just walk over to her and clear my throat. She looks up and smiles kindly, and I hand her the piece of paper, putting the pen in my pocket.

"Yoku?" she says thoughtfully, obviously trying to think if she recognizes the name.

When she doesn't, she looks up at me with a puzzled look. I try to imagine how she's feeling. I can't even imagine her confusion.

"Can't you talk?" she asks. I shake my head, and the look of sympathy I saw in the two other women passes over her face. Seriously, it's not that big a deal. She seems uncomfortable for a moment, obviously trying to think of something to say. I roll my eyes and gesture toward the piece of paper still clutched in her hand. Taking a moment to try and understand, but finally succeeding, she rips off a piece of paper from that which she's been writing on.

I write: I can't tell you anything about myself other than my name, which is Amahiro Yoku. I want you to keep this confidential. If our meetings leak into the wrong ears, I could be executed. Even though you have never seen me before, I want to ask a favour of you. Will you teach me to be a medic nin?

I wait in anticipation while she reads. Will she teach a girl she doesn't know? My hands start trembling, my right wrist aching. I'll have to get it treated in any case.

_Come on bitch_, I tell my voice, glaring at the other students sitting a little way from us, due to all the space Sakura-san's books take. _Work. Work, work, work already_. She stares at the paper after reading. I can tell she's thinking about it because her eyes don't move, and her fingers are fidgety.

"Are you in any way a danger to the village?" she asks me. Taken aback, I shake my head roughly. "Can I trust you?" I nod. She sighs. "Okay, I'll see what I can teach you. But my training isn't complete yet, so I can't teach you much yet."

I know this chapter was a tad boring, but without it the story can't continue. As always, read and review please ^^


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Again, my story is not the same as the original, as I did not create the original and therefore I have no right to copy it directly. Besides, how boring would it be for people who already know what's gonna happen? ;)

And again, I explain jutsus like I understand them to work. If you don't agree, formulate your own explanation in your mind :)

**Chapter 10 - Medical Justu**

My excitement from what is happening nearly engulfs me. Sakura takes me to the Third Traning Ground, where she first became a Genin. Seeing it in real life, along with the fact that Sakura-san and I are now alone, is enough to enable me to use my voice again.

"This is so AWESOME!" I yell, jumping up and sitting on one of the three logs, the one to which Naruto was strapped during their survival training. Sakura-san looks at me in surprise.

"I thought you can't talk," she says, a slight edge to her voice.

"I can talk, just not in front of strangers," I say simply. "It's a long story, one I don't have time for now." I think to myself. They're bound to have finished the mission by tomorrow afternoon, so I'll have to train through the night and make sure I'm back at the base by noon.

"Do you have a curfew?" she asks, confused. "Listen, who are you? That sword doesn't look native-"

"I'm not," I interrupt. "I told you. I can't tell you anything more about me other than my name. Please, I need your help. I need you to train me throughout the night. Surely you have something to keep us awake for a few hours. I have to be back by noon tomorrow and I don't know when I'll be able to come back here. It might be a month, or more. Please."

"Why did you come here, then, if you're not allowed to?" she presses.

I swear. "Listen to me carefully. I cannot tell you anything about myself. That includes where I come from, why I can't talk in front of strangers, the origin of my sword and anything else related. They will kill me if they found out that I let anything leak out ?and don't ask me who,?I add when I see she's about to interrupt. "You're bound to ask, so I'll just tell you. I want to become a medic nin because I need to better my control of my chakra, and I don't get enough training where I live now. I need more. I need to become stronger, if not to keep myself safe forever, but to keep myself alive, at least."

I exaggerated a little on the last note. I know I'm safe as long as I follow Pein's orders, but considering the fact that I'm not following them, I might as well be able to defend myself as well as possible.

"Fine," she sighs. "How many techniques can you do already?

"One," I tell her, flushing, thinking about Kisame-sensei trying to teach me something new. "The water clone. But I can also walk on walls and water, and hide my signature. My chakra control is fairly good. But, before we continue, would you mind fixing my wrist?"

"What happened?she asks, approaching me.

"It broke.?

She nods, knowing better now than to ask questions. I watched silently as her green chakra healed my aching wrist. It takes longer than I thought it would, perhaps because I left it so long. When she finishes, she says. "Tsunade-sama first had me try to save a fish's life-"

"Don't make me do that into the night," I tell her. "I can practice that back home. Just show me what to do and I'll practice it another time.?

She sighs in exasperation, but nods. She leads me to the small lake a little way away from the logs and turns back to me. "Go catch a fish."

"Youre out of your mind," I tell her, summoning a water clone instead. She stares at the clone as it looks around for a fish to catch.

It's an irritating ten minutes while the clone struggles, but when it finally catches a fish, it returns and hands it to me by the tail. Before I can take it, Sakura grabs it and walks off to a nearby rock. Not bothering to get irritated, I undo the jutsu and feel the knowledge of catching a fish leaking into me. I sit beside Sakura.

"It will take time before you can master healing chakra. It's like learning to use chakra for the first time, seeing as it's so different from that which you use to execute techniques. It's difference can be seen most plainly in the colour."

"Just tell me how to use it," I say impatiently.

"If you want to learn, you have to be patient, Yoku, otherwise-"

"Have you not been listening to me?" I say. "I don't have to be patient! Please, just tell me how to use the chakra."

"Geez, fine," she says as the fish's flapping becomes less violent. It's dying. "The theory of all of these techniques is easy, so I won't be able to do much for you until you've mastered them. The instructions are on the top of the scrolls."

She pulls a scroll from her backpack and pulls it open. In ink, a circle of strange patterns had been drawn, and at the top, like she said, were the instructions. She placed the fish in the centre of the circle and pressed her hands together in front of the chest, the way I had done to show the tall, thin woman from before my gratitude.

"There are no seals for this. The only test here is to see how good you are with controlling your chakra. Instead of balancing perfectly the amount of body and spiritual energy, focus more on the spiritual part. Healing is, after all, spiritual energy. In hypothetical numbers, focus 80% on spiritual energy. The merging will then be difficult to control. Your body will, at first, reject such an uneven amount you're trying to balance, and nothing will happen, but practice makes perfect."

She closes her eyes and hovers her hands over the fish. Green light envelopes them, and after a few seconds the fish's flapping became frantic again. She pulled it up by the tail and threw it in the water, where it swam away from us as fast as it could.

"Will you be able to remember all that?" she asks.

"Yeah," I say confidently. After all, the scroll explains it as well. "Will my normal chakra suffer under the burden of me trying to use this kind?"

"At first, yes. That's why you have to balance it-"

"No problem there," I interrupt, "My teacher is teaching me more techniques. I'll just have to pay more attention starting now."

"Who's your teacher?she asks, trying her luck.

"No one you'd be interested in," I say, smiling. I send a Water Clone to fetch another fish and place it on the scroll, in the circle.

I place my hands in front of my chest, seeing in my mind the image of my body and mind energies swirling around and try to focus them in place. The balance perfectly like they always do when I execute a technique, but when I try to edge the mind energy to take more weight, they mix up again.

I practice for what must be hours, until I'm drenched in sweat again, but nothing happens. Sakura becomes bored again and starts reading. By this time I feel so dirty it just can't be put into words. I undress until I'm only in my underwear and jump into the lake, enjoying the refreshing cool water.

After my would-be bath, I get out again, dressing in simple black shorts, a sleeveless black top and a robe. I packed these in case the other clothes got dirty. The robe is long-sleeved but only covers half my thighs. I see how long my shadow is on the ground and look behind me, my eyes widening when I see that it is already sunset.

"How long will this take me if I practice one hour a day? I can't afford more." I say, pulling my backpack over my shoulder and strapping the sword to my hip instead.

"Then, about a month," she says. "I'm sorry, but I can't teach you more than that unless you've mastered it."

My heart sinks a little, but then lifts at a sudden idea. "Will you introduce me to the rest? Neji-kun, Lee-kun, Kiba, and all of them?"

"How do you know them?" she asks. "Come to think of it, how did you know about me?"

"I pay attention," I say simply. Seriously, when is she going to accept that I can't tell her anything? "So, will you?"

"Uhm, sure," she says, rolling up the scroll and handing it to me. I pull my backpack off, shove it inside and replace it on my shoulders. "Is that heavy?"

"Nah," I lie. It's not like I can put it anywhere else.

"Alright," she sighs, "Follow me."

"Goody goody goody," I say. We turn around to head back to the logs.

I gasp, clutching my mouth, the lump forming in my throat. Sakura looks puzzled. Before us, Itachi-san and Kisame-sensei are standing, a most menacing aura about them. They're furious with me.

"I don't think so," Itachi-san says.

"Who're you?" Sakura asks. In a flash, Itachi-san is behind her. He knocks her unconscious with a blow to the head while I tremble in fear as he approaches me. When he does, he lifts his hand and slaps me in the face. The force of his blow was not surprising, but it still knocked me off my feet.

I stayed on the ground, too frightened even to look up. I'm so ashamed, because not even Kisame-sensei comes to my rescue. My shame makes my wolf ears and tail appear.

"Were you betraying us?" Itachi-san asks. I shake my head frantically, refusing to look up. "Then what are you doing here?"

Tears well up in my eyes. He knows I can't answer him. Is he going to just kill me on the spot? Will Kisame-sensei allow him to do so? I look up hopefully, but my hope is shattered by the look on Kisame-sensei's face. It's not a look of disappointment, confusion, or even anger. It's a look of disgust. The tears escape and roll down my eyes. Worse than I ever could have hoped for happens.

"You can explain yourself to the Leader," Kisame-sensei says.

He pulls a scroll from his pocket, lazily bites his thumb and rubs it across the scroll. Three eels escape. Are they poisonous? They fly toward me in the air, but before I can get up to run away, they wrap themselves around my ankles, wrists and into my mouth like a gag. Itachi-san cuts the straps of my sword and backpack and takes them. He lifts my under the other arm.

"I will see you shortly," he tells Kisame-sensei, but before I can make sense of his words, my vision is blocked by hordes of crows.

I bow my head and close my eyes as tightly as I can, but in seconds?time the flapping is gone, and when I raise my head, I am in the large, depressing room I had been the first day I came here. Pein's room.

"What is it, Itachi?" the deep, menacing voice says from behind the high-backed chair in front of me. Itachi-san lets me fall roughly to the ground. A high-pitched sound somewhere between a suppressed scream and a gasp escapes my throat. He cuts the three eels so that they disappear with a puff of smoke and I lay on the ground, held to it by my shame.

"We found her in Konoha. You can deal with her."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait. I have a lot going on at the moment, and a bit of writer's block, and I don't want to update on impulse. I want it to be perfect. So please bear with me.

As always, R&R

:)

Chapter 11 - Punishment

Itachi-san disappears in a quick-to-disperse puff of smoke, leaving me alone with the most fearsome person I know. He says nothing. The silence is worse than anything I have expected. It is as though, in the silence, Pein's outrage is all around me, suffocating me. I have no idea what he is thinking. In the few brief glimpses of him that I have taken within the last few seconds, there was no trace of any emotion.

I fight against the lump in my throat. I need to be able to speak. I need to be able to defend myself. I need to apologise and explain. If I have to, I will even reveal that I wished to train with Sakura, and that no harm will be brought to the organisation.

"Can you speak?"

His words catch me off-guard. They are just as emotionless as the rest of his face. A flicker of hope appears in my tightly contracted chest. I try with all my might to say 'yes'. I choke and cough, but no sound escapes my throat. I am resorted to shaking my head.

"I will not play the game of 'yes and no' that the others have in order to get answers from you," he says, and the flicker of hope dies. "I will just ask you this: did you, after being made clear that you are not allowed to leave the premises without an escort, go to the village of Konoha?"

This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me before. Does he have no interest as to why I went there? No explanation? Why does he not just give me a piece of paper? Anything. A tear escapes my eye as I nod.

"I am not interested in why you went there. I am only interested in one thing: you disobeyed a direct order. So you will serve the punishment for your crime. "

Sakura's POV.

I could not understand what happened. Those men in the black cloaks must have knocked me out, because I have no recollection as to what happened after they appeared. One of them had looked strangely familiar. That black-haired one. I wanted to know who they were. I needed to go to Kakashi-sensei or Jiraiya-sama. Tsunade-sama is simply too busy at the moment. It might not be something to worry about at all. But I need to know.

I am on my way to Kakahi-sensei's house when I find him, but not where I expected to. He is sitting in a coffee shop with Jiraiya-sama. They are talking in hushed voices. I head around the corner and perform the Transformation Jutsu, taking the form of a young woman who had just walked past me, and went to the coffee shop.

I deliberately take a seat close to their table and order a coffee. I pretend to be immersed in the menu while I eavesdrop.

"There is an organisation called Akatsuki that I've heard about," Jiraiya-sama is saying, "Most of them are missin-nins who were thrown out of their villages for serious crimes against the villages themselves. We only have intelligence of a few of them, one of which being Uchiha Itachi."

Despite myself, I sit a bit straighter, straining my ears more than ever.

"Uchiha?" Kakashi-sensei asks, mimicking my shock.

"Sasuke's older brother," Jiraiya-sama says, nodding, "They have something of a uniform. They wear black cloaks with red clouds."

My eyes are wide and unseeing. Could I possibly have met the one and only Uchiha Itachi? Just when I decide to continue eavesdropping, I see something outside the shop.

Trembling from shock, I leave money on my table and hurry out of the shop, following the black cloak decorated with red clouds that I had just seen. I go around the corner, where they had disappeared, but I see nothing.

Who exactly are they, and what do they want? Is Yoku a threat to the village? What should I do?

Yume's POV

I wonder where Yoku is. I haven't seen her all day. Her bed had not been slept in. I thought that she might be training, but no one has seen her. When I asked Kisame if he had seen anything, he bowed his head, his face full of an emotion that I could only describe as a mixture of anger, sadness and deep disappointment.

This worried me.

I found Itachi-kun sitting at the window in the living room, as he always did. Kakuzu is in the corner, minding his own business.

"Where's Yoku?" I ask him.

"The Leader is dealing with her," he says simply, not even looking at me. My heartbeat gets caught in my ass.

"What do you mean, dealing with her?" I demand.

"She left the building soon after Kisame and myself. We found her in Konoha, conversing with a pink-haired girl-"

"She was talking to Sakura?" I asked. I am so confused it is not even funny. Itachi-kun looks at me for the first time, a strange look passing over his eyes.

"Have you been to Konoha as well? Is that how you know her?" he asks.

"No I haven't, and nevermind how I know her, you comma-eyed prick! Where the hell is Yoku?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't tell you," he says, returning his gaze to the window, "I left her with the Leader."

My heart sinks. Yoku, what have you done?

Yoku's POV.

Pein-sama imprisoned me. He had me stripped of weapons and thick clothing, and blindfolded me before leading me to cell somewhere underneath the building. My wrists and ankles are shackled. The iron is rusted, and cuts into my skin.

It's been several hours that I have been in here. I am hungry as hell and stone cold. Whenever I shiver, the metal of the cuffs cut more deeply into my skin. If I had not been so thirsty, then tears would have streamed down my face. I am hungry, cold, tired, but most of all, scared.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Sorry that the fic is taking so long. And also, apologies that there are such long gaps between the uploading of chapters. Hopefully, you all aren't too bored yet.

And remember, my story does not go according to the sequel of events in the anime.

As always, R&R please

:)

**Chapter 12 - Rescue**

Yume's POV

I have been trying all day to try and find out exactly where Yoku is. Deidara is just as worried as I am, but no one has any answers. Pein's room is protected with several different seals, preventing entrance. I waited for more than an hour, pacing up and down in front of the door, but I heard no sound from inside. I was forced to accept that direct communication with the asshole just was not going to happen.

Deidara and I both skipped lunch. He searched outside the building for trapdoors or secret entrances to underground cells, where she might have been imprisoned, while I try to locate something, anything, within the building that might give us a clue as to where she is.

Itachi-kun has already felt my wrath. I yelled at him for fifteen minutes straight, not pausing to give him time to interrupt. I told him that, even though he is so duty-bound that he murdered his own family, does not mean he can go around destroying other people's lives as well. Because Yoku is my sister, if not in blood, but in bond.

Tobi is running rampant, panicking just as much as Deidara and me, but his panicking is not very helpful: he just mutters to himself and paces about the building.

All the others: Hidan, Kakuzu, Zetsu and Konan are all called away as the hours pass. I do not get a wink of sleep that night. I pull at the books in the living room, lift paintings and tap around the edges of doorways, trying to find a lever of some sort that will lead me to wherever Yoku is. In the middle of the night, despite their protests, Tobi and Deidara are also forced to leave.

I half the kitchen's coffee supplies, doing all I can to stay awake. After having searched every nook and cranny, lifted every book and gone through all the scrolls in all the drawers, I am forced to conclude that she is not anywhere within reach.

Thanks to the fact that I may not leave the building by my lonesome, my search is limited to the inside. More than once, I considered sneaking outside, but wherever Yoku is, I am sure that is not pleasant. And what help would I be if I was also trapped?

I exhaust every possibility of her location: prison, underground, banishment, death, but none makes sense. If she was imprisoned, then surely I would have found her by now. She would not be banished, because Pein would not want her to blab about the Akatsuki secrets, and if she had been murdered, it would have reached someone's ears, or he would have told all of us himself, to make an example.

I put coffee in a large tin bottle to keep it warm and head upstairs to the door to Pein's room, and sit against the wall. He has to come out sometime.

But the moment my head falls against the cold wall behind me, I fall asleep.

Deidara's POV.

I have just returned from my mission with Tobi. It was a success, but all I cared about was the faint hope that my beloved might be back from wherever she had been.

In the lobby, all the other Akatsuki, including Yume, are gathered, all looking slightly confused. I do not say anything. This must be a meeting arrnaged by the Leader. Tobi, for once, is quiet. Predictably, the Leader appears seconds later.

"We are leaving. Follow me."

"What about Yoku?" Yume asked in outrage, mimicking my shock.

"She will catch up," he replies.

Pein nodded to Zetsu, who nodded in turn and, in a flash, knocked Yume out and slung her over his shoulder.

"Leader, please," I try to beg, but my vision turns black, as well.

Sakura's POV.

I have been trying to get information about the Akatsuki, but there is nothing about them in the school library, village library or Tsunade-sama's study. If only Kabuto had not been such a traitor. He was excellent in gathering information. Perhaps he had even had something on that girl, Yoku.

I do not know her full name, so I could not search for her. There were too many Yokus in the world for me to try and go through each of them. All I know is that she, for some reason, wanted to become a medical ninja, and that she is not native. That does not help at all. Is she not native to the village, or the country?

I sit with my face in my hands, dejected.

Yoku's POV.

I have been in here for days. I have not received anything to eat or drink. I did not expect to, but that did nothing to quench my thrist or fill my aching belly. I sit slumped against the mossy wall, not even caring about hygiene anymore. I even start wondering if I would ever get out of here, wherever I am.

I have no track of time, but after what must at least have been five days at the least, I heard a loud "BANG!" nearby. Not really remotely interested in anything that is not food or drink, I do not pay it much heed. Minutes later, there is another explosion, closer to wherever I am.

I start panicking. Is Pein destroying the building in order to move on to the next? Without coming to get me? Is he having me executed for my crime?

I try to yell, but nothing more than a groan escapes my parched throat. I try again, and again, but barely any sound comes out.

"Hang on," a voice says from nearby. "I think I heard something. They might have left prisoners here."

I wonder who it is. What are they talking about? Prisoners? I start panicking. No one in the Akatsuki would have spoken any of those words. Have we been discovered? I try to get up, but my body refuses to respond.

I make no sound, but it is already too late. I hear footsteps and see a shadow near the door, made visible by the dim light directly outside the cell I am in. The shadow nears and obscure my view of the door. I cannot see a face, but I see the glim of a white ANBU mask.

"Hey, I found something! Get over here!" the silhouetted figure yells, making my ears ring. Two more figures appear. With another loud explosion, the lock of the cell door is smashed open, and I am slung over one of the figures' shoulders.

"What are you doing?" I croak, "My friends-"

"We will do all we can to rescue as many people as possible, miss, and return you home. For now, remain calm."

I can not really make sense of his words. He is wearing an ANBU mask, and running away from the cell with chakra in his legs. I find it impossible to protest. I shield my eyes as the light becomes brighter and, before I know it, I am consumed by darkness.

When I wake up again, I am warm and comfortable, and for a moment I think that the terrible ordeal had been a nightmare.

But then the weakness of my muscles and my starving stomach and dry throat remind me otherwise. I open my eyes. I am in what looks like a hospital. A needle has been stuck into the inside of my elbow and is attached to a drip. To my surprise, a pink haired figure is standing not three feet from me, her back turned to me.

"S-Sakura?" I croak, my throat parched. She whirls around, and her face lights up with surprise.

"You're finally awake!" she exclaims, hurrying over.

"What happened?" I ask, "How did I get here?"

"ANBU found the Akatsuki hideout, and they found you imprisoned under the building," she informs me. My heart accelerates in panic.

"You-"

"I know about the Akatsuki," she confirms. "You were the only person in the building, though. There was no sign that there had been any other inhabitance. All the rooms have been cleared before the ANBU got there. It's a miracle they found you. Your little friends would have left you to starve."

Her tone is accusatory. I knew that, if she ever found out, this would b her kind of reaction.

"You wouldn't understand," I tell her, "I have to get back-"

"Even if you were fit enough to go, which you aren't, I wouldn't allow you. If you return, then you can tell them all kinds of things-"

"Well, if you think I'll tell any of you anything about the Akatsuki, you can forget it!" I rage despite my sore throat, catching her by surprise.

"They left you to die," she says softly.

"No, my leader punished me because I disobeyed a direct order. I deserved it. And he did not leave me to die. He knew that I would survive somehow. He's waiting for me," I say stubbornly, hoping against hope that my words were the truth.

She stares at me in exasperation before leaving the room without another word. Minutes later, another nurse appears, carrying a tray full of food. I had expected to be fed icky hospital food, but on the tray rested a large bowl of Miso Ramen and a large glass with orange juice.

I stay in the hospital for three days. Since I do not have any permanent injuries, they decided to discharge me at noon. Before I could leave, however, Sakura appeared in the room, chased away the nurse that was taking my blood pressure and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Your little Akatsuki friends attacked some of my teachers!" she says angrily. A wave of panic washes over me. I know this part.

"Kakashi?" I inquire. "Where is he now?"

"He was discharged not minutes ago. He's at home."

I swear loudly, getting up, but Sakura blocks my way.

"Where are you going?"

"I-" I stop mid-sentence. If I tell her the truth, she would try to stop me. "I'm going to visit him. He does not know me, but I know him, and I am a fan. Where does he live?"

"You don't honestly expect me to tell an Akatsuki-"

"If I was a threat to anyone, all of you would have been dead by now," I tell her, "Please, please, tell me where he lives."

She seems to struggle with herself before she gives me directions. As an afterthought, she adds, "Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei are with him. If you try anything funny, you'll be killed."

"I won't," I promise, and I mean it. I have another plan. Without waiting for her to threaten me any more, I run from the room and down the stairs, following her directions. At first, I cannot remember everything precisely, but I finally find the small apartment, and jump onto the roof. Luckily the window is open, so I can hear everything. I sigh as I realise that I am just in time.

"I can't believe Uchiha Itachi has returned to the village," Aoba Yamashiro blabs.

"Itachi?" Sasuke's voice repeats in panic. "Itachi is after Naruto?" He runs from the room. Seconds later, I hear his footsteps and he starts jumping from roof to roof in pursuit of Naruto.

I know that the yellow-haired boy is on a mission with Jiraiya. Despite myself, a wave of excitement washes over me. I am going to meet the one and only Jiraiya!

I shield my chakra signature as best I can and step on the rooftops as softly as I can, always keeping out of direct sight while following Sasuke.

More than an hour passes while he searches for his blonde friend, asking almost everyone he passes if they have seen an old man and a kid with a stupid-looking face. Another half hour passes, and finally he enters the correct building. I recognise it distinctly. I stay outside, and climb a few rooftops until I am outside the window of the corridor that holds the room Naruto is in.

I wait patiently while watching, barely believing what I am witnessing. Saskuke attacks Itachi-san and is then trapped within Tsukiyomi, where he is tormented for a few seconds. Watching it first-hand is much worse than I thought it would be.

Eventually Sasuke passes out after twitching a few times, and Itachi-san moves to Naruto, putting Kisame-sensei in plain sight. I keep out of view, not wanting to distract either of them. A few minutes later, Jiraiya appears and traps all of them within his frog belly prison, obscuring all of them from view.

Knowing what is coming next, I run away and go to the entrance to the village, hoping that they would exit through here. I see the black flames of Ameterasu in the distance and, not believing my luck, I watch Itachi-san and Kisame-sensei heading my way.

They stop right in front of me. I have eyes only for my sensei, but his expression remains blank. A tear forms in my eye and rolls down my cheek.

"You have five minutes," Itachi-san says simply before walking into the trees.

I start trembling. I run forward and fall down at Kisame-sensei's feet, "I'm so sorry, sensei! I promise I didn't tell the Konoha runts anything about myself or the organisation! I swear! I'll do anything to prove it to you, because it's the truth! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me, sensei! Please don't be mad anymore! Please take me back!"

I clutch the bottom of his cloak in both my hands, crying at his feet. His silence is discouraging, and I cry worse. Finally, I get pulled up by my hair. I don't mind the pain. Kisame-sensei pulls me up until our faces are level. His fish-like features do not bother me at all anymore.

Suddenly his face softens and he pulls me into a tight hug. "I knew you wouldn't betray us!"

"Sensei!" I hug him back. "I'm so sorry that I left. I'll rather ask Kakuzu-san to train me. I won't ever do anything that's forbidden again. I promise, sensei!"

"That's my girl," he says, and lets me go.

"The Leader said you would catch up to us," Itachi-san's deep voice says, and I see him leaning against a nearby tree. So he had heard my whole confession.

I look at Kisame-sensei in question. As always, it is as though he could read my mind. "We had to leave. The Leader knew that the base had been discovered. I do not know whether he thought you were the one who made it public. I don't know why he left you there, but he seemed convinced that you would find us again."

I nod. At least Pein believes my innocence now.

"Let us return home. Itachi and I have some planning to do."

I grin and salute, silently saying 'hai, sensei!' Kisame-sensei chuckles, the best sight I could hope for.


End file.
